A Grimm's Handler
by Vendicor
Summary: Parents are supposed to be the caretakers for their kids. Some however go too far in their care, resulting in a buildup of spite for one individual. Not wanting to deal with them anymore, he travels around Remnant, not sure where to go, before he ends up as a student in everyone's favorite academy. His life from there… is anything but normal.
1. Prologue

"Here you are sir. Have a safe trip."

"Thank you." I reply to the lady in the window and make my way into the ship. I sit down with a huff, placing my backpack on the ground next to my feet and slowly take a moment to process my mind. _'School… geez I can't believe I'm doing this.'_ I think as I stare as everyone and other people begin trudging onto the ship and taking their seats. I am on a massive transport airship that's set to take me and dozens of other people straight to a specific location. After only a few more minutes of people entering, the ship finally lifts off and takes us to our destination.

Beacon Academy to be specific.

With a grunt, I lean back and adjust my jacket for the ride. My attire consists of a black leather jacket with a hood and a clip on the front that allows me to wear it with ease without having to have my arms inside the sleeves so it freely moves about in the wind but settles when the air is silent. I wear a blue shirt with a logo of Beowolf's black, red and white skull on the front with a sword going through it. A white chain necklace goes down my neck and ends with a small silver scythe at the end. Black fingerless gloves with a metal plate on the back of my hands are there to help protect against my own weapon from cutting me. I also wear some black pants that give me free range of movement thanks to their stretching ability, and steel toed black combat boots with the soles lined with metal segments as well.

I have blue eyes, black short hair and a scar line runs down at an angle from my left eye's eyebrow to just below the eye itself. A permanent red line runs straight along the scar on my face on my sclera of the eyes when I look straight ahead.

An accident when I was younger thanks to my parents careless actions so I'm left with this permanent disfigurement on my face. Even with the aura I possess, too much time transpired between when I got it and when I accessed my aura so no amount of anything can fix this.

I never forgave my parents for that event that took place. Maybe that and their constant badgering throughout my life was what led to my boiling point but I digress.

Two years. I spent two years alone away from that grimmforsaken home and I don't know if that was the best or worst decision of my life. They took care of me, fed me, clothed me, taught me how to fight and even how to make and maintain my weapons.

Razor and Revolt, or put them together for Razor's Revolt, whichever is best or prudent for the situation. My weapons are a pair of Chakram blades with handles in the middle that I don't throw but use as melee weapons. The blades are serrated and the metal circles are segmented, allowing them to split apart and form together into something else or compact. A rail underlies the spine of the blade parts so with the click of a button, they can spin with frightening speed over my hands and against my opponents. They do wonders in combat and I have found useful ways in dispatching my opponents or going on par with them.

I'm knocked out of my thoughts by the screen in front of me showing I and everyone else on the ship the news. "The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Lisa."

"That guy's still out?" I mutter as I stand up and get a closer look to the mug shot of the person. "Wow. He's a crafty one."

"He sure is." A new voice pops up next to me. A girl whose age is probably no older than my own is looking at me with a smile. She's got red highlights in her hair and is wearing a lot of red and black on her clothing. "I would know. I fought him." She tells me, emphasizing the second I.

I stare at her for a few seconds of silence before staring at the mug shot again, then back to her who is still smiling, then the picture and when I turn back, she's annoyed. I nod my head in the direction of the picture.

"Yes, I did. He had some help though which is why I couldn't stop him." Her annoyance slightly disappears as she recalls the encounter apparently. "Hi. I'm Ruby. What's your name?" She formally introduces herself and extends her hand to me.

I glance down at her hand before turning back to the screen. "Hey!" Before anything else can happen, a hand roughly grabs my shoulder and forces me to turn back to Ruby. At least that's what I was expecting. Now I am staring at a tall intimidating woman with a lot of blond hair and a pissed off look on her face. Not to mention the intimidating presence that's emitting off of her. "My sister gave you her name and asked for yours. It's common courtesy to give it back." She angrily tells me as she gets closer and closer to my face. I don't back down however as I've dealt with intimidating people before.

"Courtesy maybe… but I'm not one to just give my name to everyone I meet just for being nice." I scowl at her. She grits her teeth and stares at me with slightly increased anger and I narrow my eyes.

"Hey guys." Ruby pops out between us, forcing us to move back and look at her. She points to the news screen to see its feed changed.

"Thank you, Cyril. In other news, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony." An image of a Beowolfs face and three scratch marks appear next to the news anchors face to show the logo of the now infamous organization. "The once peaceful organization has now disrupted..." Before the news can continues, the feed is cut off and a holographic projection of what I assume to be an instructor appears.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon!" She announces.

"Who's that?"

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch." The hologram woman gives us her name.

"Oh." Ruby's sister says seeing her question being answered so quickly. _'I still have a hard time seeing them to be sisters at all.'_

"You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy!" I focus my attention back on my future instructor. "Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." Ms. Goodwitch gives us a nice speech on our future at the academy. Once she's done talking, her form disappears and gives us an unimpeded view of the window outside, showing us Vale in all its glory.

"Oh, wow!" Ruby and several other students on the airship move over to the window see everything around and under us. I can't help but move over as well to see everything as well. I was born in Vacuo, more specifically in a place with my family that is somewhat secluded but the way the place is, no one paid us any mind what we did. _'Wish they did though.'_ I think with annoyance. "Look, you can see Signal from up here!" I hear Ruby say as she looks off to the other school. _'Guess she went there.'_ "I guess home isn't too far after all!"

"Beacon's our home, now." Her sister comes in and comforts her. Without turning my head, I momentarily glance at way the sisters are comforting each other. My fist clenches for a second before I calm down and continue staring outside.

"Uhhhhh, ugh." All three of us turn our heads to a weird groaning sound. We see another blonde passenger with armor plates on him hunched over nearby, running to the back of the ship and past us. He passes pretty close to the girls but I give him a wide-berth. _'No offense man, but I don't want to get puke on me.'_ I swear I think I saw some actually leak out. I shudder at the thought.

"Well... I guess the view isn't for everyone." Ruby's sister says with an eye roll.

"It was a nice moment while it lasted." Ruby mutters.

"Probably motion sickness." I comment. "Ship like this can be notorious for people like that." I lean closer to the window and look to see that we are across a large body of water. "Sea sickness could work to."

"Well still, I wonder who else we're gonna meet! I just hope they're better than Vomit Boy. You're already better than Vomit Boy." Ruby happily says and tells me with as she pushes my arm.

"He is?!"

"I am?" Both I and her sister are kind of surprised at the statement, making us look at her with wide eyes.

"Well, I did kind of come out of the blue like that. Ehhehe." She says embarrassingly as she scratches the back of her head. "But I do hope I didn't make you too uncomfortable like that."

As she apologizes to me, I can't help but be surprised at the sincerity that seems to radiate off of her as she apologizes for her forward actions earlier. I've lived most of my life in the hardened lifestyle of Vacuo and even traveled to Mistral as well, familiarizing myself with the ignored and rogue element there so I'm used to dealing with liars and cutthroats.

Ruby however… I have no idea what it is but she seems, genuine in her words to me. She feel… nice to hear and I mentally berate myself for my actions before. I look down in sadness but as I go to bring my head up, something catches my eye. "Uhhhhhhh…" I groan, trying to figure out how to best tell—

"Oh, Yang, gross! You have puke on your shoe!"

'… _Well that's one way to put it.'_ I think to the girl's outburst of her sisters predicament.

"Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross!" Yang cries out over and over again at the offending piece of biological on her boot and tries to shake it off.

It doesn't work. "Get-Get away! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me!" Her thrashing however moves her closer and closer to her sister, who in the least it bit wants nothing to do with the substance on Yang's boot and tries to backpedal away but it fails.

"Hahahaha." I can't help but chuckle at their antics. My smile and laugh surprises them to the point they stop altogether and look at me. With the smile still on my face, I step forward and extend a bow to the two of them, especially Ruby, the black red-tinted hair girl who introduced herself to me first, despite me being a complete unknown. "Apologies for my actions before." I lift myself up with my hands behind my back. "Ethan. Ethan Wright. A pleasure to meet you." I give them my name with a head nod.

I've had skepticisms for coming to this school to begin with. But the chance proved too good an opportunity to pass up and at first I was willing to suck it up.

Now though… I think I might like going here.

 **(Cover Image does not belong to me.) This is probably by far my most favorite anime. Yes the show doesn't exactly have look of others cartoonish looks of others animes but you know what, screw it. I'm sticking with that classification and still love the show regardless.**

 **Besides Anime's the category Fanfiction gave the show so I can't really argue against that.**

 **The vol. 4 finale was already released and boy was it crazy. The whole show is crazy and awesome but like my other stories, I've got a bunch of ideas that I really really want to put into words and see where I go from there and what other ideas pop out at me.**

 **This is still going to be fun and hopefully a wild ride for all of us.**

 **Have a great day, and have fun reading.**


	2. 1 The Shining Beacon

"Ughhhh…"

"Here." I say as the sick guy with his face in the trashcan groans. I place down a bottle of water next to his feet. "This should help with the taste."

"Uhhhhh… thanks." He groans his thanks to me without looking up but he does wave in my direction. With that, I continue walking with my friends to our new home.

The view from the airship did not do the academy justice. After we finally landed and started walking out of the ship, and giving a wide-berth to the same person who puked on Yang's shoes, who was deathly staring at him while he was heaving in the trashcan, Ruby, Yang and I start walking up to the academy with all the other new students of the academy. "Wow…" The both of them say in awe at the sheer size of the place. I however just gape at it all.

"The view from Vale's got nothing on this!" Yang comments as she folds in her arms.

"No kidding." I agree with her from her left. I've seen some pretty impressive looking pieces all over Remnant but this academy has an air about it that's just breathtaking.

"Ah ah!" Some more than others. Yang and I both look to our left to see Ruby gushing at some students that walk by with their weapons out. "Ohmygosh, sis!" I don't know how but my eyes are playing tricks on me because Ruby gets so excited she becomes a 2-D, starry-eyed, floating chibi of herself. _'What?_ ' I question in my head as she waves at them. "That kid's got a collapsible staff! And she's got a fire sword!" She says giddily as she begins floating off. I rub my eyes and when I open them again, I see Yang pulling her sister back to normal proportions between us. "Ow! Ooww!"

"Easy there, little sister. They're just weapons." She tells her little sister matter a factly.

"Just weapons?!" Ruby asks like she was just slapped. "They're an extension of ourselves! They're a part of us! Oh, they're so cool!" She gushes at the new weapons. _'Speaking of weapons, I wonder what's their's?'_ I think on my new friends.

"Well, why can't you swoon over your own weapon? Aren't you happy with it?" Yang asks her sister.

It only takes a glance to my left before I hear the tale-tale sounds of a weapon opening up. I look back and see the tip of a blade on my face. "Ah!" I yelp and fall back. As the two of them look down at me, I can't help but gape at the massive weapon used by the tiny girl. "That's your weapon?!" I slightly yell in disbelief.

"Yep!" Ruby happily replies like its nothing. "You like?" She asks with a sly smile.

"Uhhhhhh…" I don't form a coherent answer as I feel I almost lost my head just a second ago.

"And for your information Yang," Ruby turns back to her sister. "Of course I'm happy with Crescent Rose!" She says as she cuddles the deadly weapon. _'Crescent Rose? Wow that's… fitting alright.'_ "I just really like seeing new ones. It's like meeting new people, but better..." She finishes saying the last part almost sadly. _'I won't argue there Ruby.'_ I think as I get back up. _'Although I don't think I'm as much a gun nut as you.'_ I lean back and make sure I'm where she won't accidentally take my head off, especially with how much ease she moves that thing with.

"Ruby, come on, why don't you go try and make some friends of your own?" Yang asks her little sister and playfully pulls her red hood down over her face.

"But... why would I need friends if I have you?" She asks, then points to me. "And hey, Ethan's a friend!" I smile at the mention.

"He doesn't count."

"Hey!" I can't help but say in annoyance.

"We 'both' made friends with him. You need to make friends on your own." She accentuates the both part. "And besides," As she says that part, a stampede of footsteps come from around us before a crowd of people surround Yang. "My friends are here. Gotta go catch up. 'Kay, see ya, bye!"

"Hey whoa!" I shout as Yang's rapid talking completely confuses me followed by her speeding away with a crowd of people knocks me to the ground as they almost barrel into me. I fall onto my back in a heap and groan a little. "Ahhhh, thanks Yang." I groan as I take a second to get my bearing from the spin. I hear tumbling which I can only assume is Ruby having similar problems as well because of her sisters abrupt departure.

"Sorry?! Do you have any idea of the damage you could have caused?" A new voice pipes up, shifting me from my moment of hurt. Looking up, I see a pale white-haired girl in a white skirt dress staring down at a confused Ruby, who is laying in a pile of luggage bags and suitcases.

As I go to stand up, I feel a bit lighter for some reason. _'Hey, where's my bag?'_ Looking around for a second, I see my bag fell off me and landed a few feet away. "There you are." While Ruby and the other girl argue or whatever, I crawl over and quickly swipe it back before looking inside to make sure that everything is alright. Thankfully nothing got broken, especially my weapons. Seeing as how I almost lost my bag, I quickly grab Razor and Revolt before I slip them onto my arms in their compacted states. "Nice."

*BOOM!*

"Holy—!"

*Shing*

My instincts flare up at the sudden explosion only a few feet away from me. I saw fire, lightning, and some snow, I think? Either way, I'm more concerned with the RAPIER STUCK IN MY HAND!

"Ow." I quietly say as I stare at the weapon embedded in my right hand. Fortunately, the tip of the blade just barely cut through the top of my hand and drew blood but not skewered my hand all together. The metal plate used to protect my hand from my own weapon just saved me a whole lot of pain. Very carefully, I sling my pack onto my back with my left hand, and stand up.

"Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!" I look up to see the white-haired lady yelling at Ruby again.

"I'm really, really sorry!" She quickly apologizes but the other doesn't look convinced. I also notice another girl standing a little ways off holding a book and a red bottle but I look back to my hand. A noticeable red spot is starting to form and it's starting to ache. While the two continue to argue, I grab the blade and try to pull it out. "Mm!" I moan as the pain flares up and it doesn't budge whatsoever. "Great." I groan in defeat and slowly walk over to the person I presume owns the rapier.

"Hey, I said I was sorry, princess!" Ruby replies sternly.

"It's heiress, actually." Ruby and the girl look over as the red dust bottle holding, black-haired, bow wearing girl walks up to us. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."

' _A Schnee? Here? Wow.'_ I think in slight awe as I walk up behind them unnoticed. I mean slight because my hand hurts.

"Finally! Some recognition!" Weiss smiles smugly at being recognized but I have more pressing matters to attend to.

"The owner of this rapier, I presume?" I ask out loud. All three of them turn and see standing close by cradling my hand with the long sword sticking out of it.

"Oh my gosh! Ethan, are you okay?!" Ruby cries out in worry.

"Hey! That's mine!" Weiss verbally claims her weapon while pointing at it. I try to pull the weapon out again but it remains firmly stuck in my hand.

The third girl however just purses her lips and crosses her arms. "As well as the same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." She informs us all with maybe a hint of malice in her voice.

"Wha-" She stammers for a second at the insult basically thrown at her and her family's company. Ruby snickers at the failed retort. "How dare you- The nerve of... Ugh!" Fed up, Weiss gets up in the bow girl's face and takes the bottle from her, walking off in a huff toward her helpers as they gather the luggage and follow. She doesn't get far before turning at a complete right angle towards me. She walks right up to me and stands there with her hand at her hips, making me sweat drop at her intense glare. "Give me that!"

*Shick*

"OW!" I shout as with one swipe, she pulls her sword out of my hand, not caring in the least bit about any pain that befell on me. She looks at the tip of the blade in disgust at the redness staining it. She pulls out a handkerchief and starts rubbing it off as she walks away.

"I promise I'll make this up to you!" Ruby calls out to the Schnee girl as she walks away. She gives off a sigh. "I guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day... So, what's..." She begins to say to the other girl but she's already walking off. In a huff, she falls back onto the ground. "Welcome to Beacon…" I hear her moan.

"Quite a first impression, eh?" I say with a smile as I walk up to her. I extend my left hand for her to take, the one not sporting a cut. With a smile back, she takes it and I pull her up.

"Yep." She says with a tired smile when she stands tall.

"Hey." We turn our heads to the new voice. It's the blonde haired guy that was puking earlier. "I'm Jaune. Are you two okay?"

I look at Ruby and she looks at me before turning back to the concerned guy. "We're good." I bring my injured hand up. "Just a flesh wound. I'm Ethan."

"Ruby." We introduce ourselves but for some reason, my friend barely suppresses a chuckle. "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"

"Ehhhhh." I sigh at her blunt attitude before reaching into my pack.

* * *

"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on!"

"Yes Jaune, we know." I drown out in annoyance. _'Geez he will not shut up with that.'_

"Look, I'm sorry! Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind." Our red wearing companion manages to say through slight laughing.

"Oh, yeah? What if I called you Crater Face?" He tries to mock her but fails in my opinion.

"Hey, that explosion was an accident!" She replies.

"Sure it was." I sarcastically say as finish wrapping my hand up and holding it up.

"You sure your okay?" Jaune asks but I wave him down.

"Yeah, yeah. The blade barely nicked the skin." I say and carefully slip my glove back on. It's a slight tight fit what with the extra bandage but nothing too bad.

"That's good. And anyway, the name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it."

Ruby and I look at each other at the attempt of suave he tries to do. "Do they?" We both ask, completely skeptic about it.

"They will! Well, I-I hope they will. My mom always says that... Never mind." He stammers but fails in the end.

Ruby gives off a short set of giggles at him and I chuckle but soon we delve into an uncomfortable set of awkward silence. "So... I got this thing!"

*Thump*

"Whoa!"

"Geez Ruby! Careful with that thing!" I shout and Jaune yelps as she opens up her weapon and stabs it into ground right by my feet. A few inches to the right and I'm pretty sure I'd have lost my big toe. "You almost got me."

"Eh hehe, sorry." She apologizes with a sheepish grin.

"Is, uh, that a scythe?" Jaune hesitantly asks. I'm not surprised with his reluctance to talk to her. If she pulled that out the first time I met her, I would have surely been more weary than friendly. We stop altogether to talk.

"It's also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle." She informs us with a proud smile.

"A-wha...?" Jaune asks confused.

"A gun." I answer with realization in my voice.

*Ch-chik*

She cocks the gun with little effort. "Correct."

"Oh. That's cool."

"Cool? That's awesome." Jaune and I both admire her weapon.

"So what've you got?" She asks Jaune about his weapon. I'm curious about what his equipment is as well. I saw the sword but it could be something else entirely. After all, I was not expecting that small bit of metal on her lower back to turn into a giant scythe that could shoot high impact snipe shots.

"Oh. I, uh...I got this sword." He pulls out a simple look sword from the sheathe on his hip.

"Ooooohh." My friend simply regards the weapon as do I. It's nothing too big but it should at least be effective in fighting. Especially if it's paired with a-

"Yeah, and I've got a shield, too." He tells us as he pulls out his scabbard and it turns into a kite shield. _'A shield that's also the swords scabbard. Nice. You can never go wrong with a classic combo like that.'_

"Nice." I compliment him. He returns a smile.

"So, what do they do?" Ruby asks as she touches the shield but it seems like she pressed the wrong thing because it suddenly retracts in his hand.

"Hey! Whoa! Ah! Ah!" Jaune fumbles about as he tries to catch his folding and unfolding shield before it finally falls to the ground. He picks up and puts away his shield on his hip again. It was slightly amusing seeing him fumble about like that. "The shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it, I can just... put it away..."

"I can appreciate the need for a compacted form." I tell him, which slightly lifts his mood.

"But... wouldn't it weigh the same?" Ruby points out.

"Yeah, it does…" He replies dejectedly with shoulders slumped.

His action elicits a small laugh from me and Ruby before she turns to me. "Well, what do you got?" She asks as she shoulders her giant scythe. Seriously I can't get over that thing.

Not wanting to be left out, I bring both my arms up and show my compacted weapons slid up my arms. "I give you, Razor's Revolt." With a flick of my arms downward, my blades slide into my palms and open into the circular blades I've come to know and love.

"Oooooohh!" Both Ruby and Jaune say in awe at the sheen that my blades hold.

"Neat huh? Their small forms allow me to get in nice and up close with my enemies so I can do massive damage to them. You'd be surprised at how the bigger bulkier Grimm creatures have some trouble taking me out when I get right up to them." I explain my method of attack. Usually I've seen a lot of melee weapons be some sort of long arm or have some reach to it. While reach may be at a disadvantage to me, if I can move past their area of attack then I can wreak some serious havoc on my opponents.

"Nice." Jaune compliments me, making me smile.

"That's cool and all… but is that it?" Ruby asks confused. "It doesn't have anything else?"

I stare at her for a few seconds with a neutral expression before I smile. The smile soon turns into a laugh, much to their confusion. "Ah hahahahahahaaaa… Ahhhhhhh no." I let out a low moan before I answer with a deadpan no. "Yeah this is not the only form I have." I take a step back from my friends and extend my arms outwards. With a click of a button, the segmented blades click off before they stack upon one another, extending into four long straight blades onto each handle in a 'plus' pattern that the blades extend from my hands to my elbows.

"Whoa." My friends gape at the transformation.

"Wait for it." I hold their thoughts and next the blades begin spinning. Slowly at first but soon they spin at the speed of helicopter blades. I smirk at their expressions before I slowly bring them forward, carefully to keep the blades from hitting each other and make sure they see the sides and front of the blades spinning. After a couple shows of movement, I click the buttons again and they stop spinning before going back into their standard forms. "Cool, huh?"

"Very." Ruby says with a giddy expression.

"Yeah, the blades spinning like that ensure that if a Grimm or anyone else tries to attack me from the front, then it'll be that much harder for them to attack head-on."

"Now that's pretty cool." Jaune says.

I smirk at that but I also notice Ruby keeping a very close eye on my weapons with a large grin on her face. "Excuse you?" I say, snapping her out of it.

"Oh, sorry!" She quickly apologizes and backs up with a grin on her face and rubbing the back of her head embarrassingly. "I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons. I did go a little overboard when designing Crescent Rose here." She tells us as she rubs her weapon.

"Wait, you made that?!" Jaune asks surprised at the idea that she made her own weapon.

"Of course! All students at Signal forge their own weapons! Didn't you make yours?" She asks. From the simplicity of his set, I'm not a hundred percent sure it's something he made.

"It's a hand-me-down." He answers. "My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war."

"The war? Wow." I comment and give another once over for his blade. Despite the time, it looks very well-kept. "For a hand-me-down, it looks like it hasn't aged a bit."

"Hehe, thanks."

"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me!" Ruby pipes up and I role my eyes at her comment. She laughs a bit. "But still, I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days." She says good-heartedly.

"Can't ever go wrong with a classic. It's called a classic for a reason." I add.

"Yeah, the classics…" Jaune says somewhat sadly before sheathing his sword.

With the topic of weapons off the table, I compact my weapons onto my arms and we start moving again. "So why'd you talk to us back there? In the courtyard?" Ruby asks our blonde friend.

"Eh, why not? My mom always says, 'Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'" He answers happily. "Besides, this guy right here did give me that bottle of water out of the blue for my stomach. Thanks again."

"Oh yeah." I say as I remember that small action I did. I look at my red wearing friend with a smile. "Not even an hour Ruby and already you're rubbing off on me."

"Then I am a positive influence!" She happily says with arms flared into the air. Her action allows Jaune and I to lightly chuckle. After a few more feet of walking, we delve into silence before she looks around. "Hey, where are we going?"

"Oh, I don't know. I was following you." We stop altogether at his words. The two of them look at me.

"Hey, don't look at me. I was following you two." I tell them with hands up in a defensive manner.

"Y-You think there might be a directory? Maybe a food court? Some kind of recognizable landmark?" At our silence, and then Ruby's smirking, his mood deflates a little more. "Is, uh... Is that a 'no'?"

"That's a 'no'."

"Yep."

"Great." He says annoyed as he looks all around us. We are on some sort of path behind some buildings but other than that, there is nothing that screams any discernible point. "Now where?" He asks out loud as he scratches his head in confusion.

"Hold on, let me try something."I mutter, unsure if they heard me or not but not really caring either. Slowly, I bring my right hand forward in front of me. Clenching my fist, I concentrate. Feeling the energy course through me, I clench my eye and purse my lips as I feel the energy release from me. With that moment finished, I unclench my hand, stand straight and look around before looking up. A lone bird high up in the air makes a silhouette from the sun itself.

"Does that bird look weird?"

"Maybe?"

Pursing my lips at my friends comment, I watch as it glides over and disappears over the rooftop of another building "Forget it. Let's go." I direct them towards the building where the bird disappeared to since that's now where we are supposed to go.

"Wait, how do you know?" I stop at Ruby's question and glance back to her over my shoulder.

I smile. "Call it instinct." With that cryptic saying, I continue walking towards where we are supposed to go. I hear their footsteps falling in behind me as I glance up to the sky one more time.

* * *

Looks like I was right because as we make our way through the doors, the many sets of voices coming down the hallway instantly hit us. It was just a matter of following them and next thing we knew, we are standing in a large auditorium of sorts almost filled to the brim with student of all kinds.

"Wow. This place is packed. I wonder how we'll be able to find—"

"Ruby! Ethan!"

"Oh there you go."

"Over here! I saved you a spot!" We look over to Ruby's sister Yang as she waves to us, getting our attention.

"Oh! Hey, I-I gotta go! I'll see you after the ceremony!" Ruby quickly tells Jaune and starts moving but immediately moves back to grab my hand. "C'mon Ethan!"

"Hey, whoa!" I yelp as she pulls me with a surprising amount of strength. I skip as I almost trip but I manage to keep my footing, somewhat, as we make our way to Yang. I vaguely hear Jaune mention something about a girl but that's it. We move up on her left and look towards the stage.

"How's your first day going, you two?" She asks us with a cheeky smile.

"You mean since you ditched us and I exploded?" Ruby asks her sister with slight anger in her voice as we look at her. I'm not surprised at her nager, especially since she 'did' explode.

"Yikes. Meltdown already?"

"No, I literally exploded a hole in front of the school! And there was some fire, and I think some ice...?" Ruby explains and asks herself.

"Ice, fire, lightning… and a sword." I calmly explain and pull off my glove, revealing the bandaged hand.

Her eyes widen at the wound. "Wow. Wait, you're not joking?" She asks in disbelief, which makes Ruby a little irked.

"I wish! I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage, and then she yelled at me, and then I sneezed, and then I exploded, and then she yelled at me again, and I felt really, really bad, and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me!" She tearfully tells her sister of the events that happened. Something else is bothering though.

' _Why do I feel like I'm being watched specifically?'_ I question in my head at the odd feeling.

"YOU!"

"Gah!"

"Oh god it's happening again!"

I jerk forward and turn around at the loud abrupt voice while Ruby jumps into her sister's arms in surprise. As if to prove to Yang of what happened, Weiss Schnee, the girl who owned the luggage crates that Ruby fell into, and the sword that almost skewered my head, heard everything that my red wearing friend said. "You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" She angrily tells us.

"Oh, my God, you really exploded." Yang says in disbelief.

"See." I say.

"It was an accident." Ruby says to Weiss as she gets down from her sister. "It was an accident!" She is suddenly stopped as Weiss pushes a pamphlet into the girls face. "What's this?"

I squint my eyes at the name on the pamphlet. _'_ _DUST for dummies and other Inadequate Individuals_ _. Wait that's seriously the title?'_ I question in my head at the slightly insulting name for a pamphlet by a big company.

"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries…"

And by that point I drown off, as does Ruby, while Miss Schnee begins giving us a long winded explanation about her company and liability issues like she's rehearsed this. I glance around and see everyone milling about in the auditorium and waiting for whatever it is we are here for. I notice a specific group of guys getting a little loud for my tastes and look to be very very excited to be here at the academy. They flail their arms around and look like their getting a bit too cocky for my liking of being here. _'Glad I didn't meet them first. At least with those I met already, they seem a bit tame in comparison.'_

"Uuhhh…" Ruby's moan of unsure moves my attention back to her. It looks like the explanation was over.

"You really wanna start making things up to me?" She asks Ruby.

"Absolutely?" Her answer comes off as a confused question.

"Read this, and don't ever speak to me again." She shoves the pamphlet into her arms.

"A little much don't you think?" I pipe up. "I mean she did apologize." I point out but she doesn't look convinced, instead she looks sharply at me, making me recoil a little.

"That's right and, uh, it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?" Yang hopefully tries to mediate the tension between the two of them, and getting the attention off of me thankfully.

"Yeah! Great idea, sis!" Ruby is immediately on board with the idea but I have my reservations about it. I've met people and it seems like first impressions for Weiss here means a lot. She puts away the pamphlet and holds out her hand as she clears her throat. "Hello, Weiss. I'm Ruby. Wanna hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies!" She tells the heiress with a bit of hope that her new impression will be a turning point.

"Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, blond, and scraggly over there!" She tells us with what I can plainly tell is fake enthusiasm. I would have probably said something but I'm too busy making a slicing motion with the tips of my fingers on my throat to Jaune. He heard Weiss mention and point to him so I'm basically telling him 'no don't' but he ignores me as he checks himself. _'Aw great. This won't end well.'_

"Wow, really?" Ruby didn't pick up on her fake enthusiasm.

Everything is silent between us as Weiss glares at Ruby. "No." She bluntly says.

"Listen, why don't you—" I calmly begin to say but she immediately rounds about on me.

"And do you want something?" She asks crossly as she looks at me.

I stare at her for a few seconds. "Well," I start as I rub the back of my head. "I would like an apology for you ripping your sword out of my hand without a care for me." I answer. While the weapon didn't do any permanent damage to me, it was still painful having it abruptly pulled out like that.

"You want an apology? Fine. I'm sorry that her careless actions caused an explosion that nearly destroyed everything I brought with me and almost killed you. There?"

"…"

*Pop*

One of the bones in my fingers left hand pops as I clench it a little too hard behind me back. My friends look a little worried at me as I squint my eyes at the girl in front of me. _'And this is why I don't usually like talking with people, especially stuck up snobby entitled little…'_ I go to say something but the squeal of a microphone interrupts us and everyone else in the auditorium. Our headmaster of Beacon Academy, Professor Ozpin, stands on the stage in front of the microphone with the teacher we saw back at the airship in holographic form, Glynda Goodwitch.

The professor clears his throat as he pushes his glasses higher onto the bridge of his nose before speaking. "I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction." Some of the students start whispering among themselves because of his words. "You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." He finishes up his short speech and starts walking off to the side.

Miss Goodwitch moves into his place at the microphone. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." She informs all of us and heads off.

"He seemed kind of… off." Yang comments and I can't help but agree with her.

"His speech did seem a little… vague when you think about it." I add as well, which my friends nod in agreement.

"It's almost like he wasn't even there." Ruby says her thought on the matter as well.

' _He did come off a little strange in that speech of his. When I met him, or more specifically when he met me out of the blue, he came off as filled with so much wisdom but now? I don't know about—'_

"I'm a natural blonde, you know."

Weiss puts her hand to her face in exasperation and I close my eyes and shake my head. _'Oh Jaune.'_

* * *

The day passed relatively quickly and soon I and everyone else hoping to attend Beacon Academy did what we were told by Miss Goodwitch to sleep in the ballroom. After placing our weapons and equipment in our lockers, we went to the ballroom to get ready for sleep. The place is packed and nearly all of the floors on both levels have been taken up. I stand on the second floor balcony overlooking the bottom floor, looking for any spot I can use to sleep. There are a few spots but nothing to my preference. Everyone's too close together and that makes me a little uneasy. For the time I've spent on my own, I've slept alone and away from people when I can so the idea of sleeping in a tightly packed room like this… it doesn't bode well as much for me.

With my options limited here, I decide to go elsewhere. With one last glance over the floor, in which I lock eyes with Ruby for a second, I head over to the doors leading to the outside. I quickly but quietly open the doors and close them before too much cold air can get through. Thankfully, the air at night is only a brisk wind to it so it's not freezing and not too heavy and strong. As I quickly close the doors, I drop my stuff and take a quick look around. I have a pretty great overlook of a majority of the campus as well as vale and the surrounding landscape beyond. "Perfect." I say and start placing my sleeping bag down. As I roll it out and start flattening, I hear the door behind me open. Quickly turning around, I see its Ruby dressed in what I can assume is her pajamas.

"Ethan? What are you doing out here?" She asks in confusion.

"Just finding a good place to sleep that's not near a dozen other people." I calmly explain as I finish straightening out my sleeping bag with my feet.

"But why out here? It's cold."

"It's not that cold." I try to say.

*Fwooooooo*

"Brrrrrrr." A small gust of wind blows by us, leaving me unaffected but Ruby wraps her arms around herself, making her shiver. Once she's down shivering, she looks at me with a cross stare.

"… Much."

"Why don't you come back inside? I'm pretty sure there's an open spot next to me and Yang." She proposes with a smile.

I chuckle a little before giving her a smile. "Thanks but no thanks. It's nothing against you or your sister, far from it." I quickly say so she doesn't take it the wrong way. "I'm just not used to sleeping next to people, especially in a cramped place like that." I explain.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I've been on my own for awhile now and it's going to take some getting used to sleeping in a room like that." I say with a head nod towards the doors we went through.

She glances at the door before looking back to me. "And outside?" She gestures around us.

"I like the cold, I like the stars, and I like how quiet it is." I calmly explain to her of my reasons.

"Oh… that's nice." She tells me with a smile, which I return and nod. "You sure you don't want to come back in? It can't be that bad." She says and opens the door.

A loud roar of snoring immediately hits us through the small crack of the opened door. Ruby quickly shuts the door, stares at it for a few seconds before turning back to me with an embarrassed grin. "Uhhhh, eh he, okay it might be bad." She rubs the back of her head.

I chuckle at her action before I start sitting down. "Yeah, good luck with that." I sarcastically say.

"Oohhhh." She lightly groans at the potential uneven sleep she might have tonight and grabs the door handle. "Alright well, if your sure."

"I am."

"Okay. Well, goodnight then."

"Goodnight Ruby. Tell Yang goodnight." I wish her and her sister a good night before I turn onto my side. "Oh hey wait!" I quickly prop myself up, getting her attention before she close the door.

"Yes?"

"Thanks, uhhh, thanks for checking up on me." I manage to thank her.

"No problem." She replies with a smile. "See you."

"See ya." I reply as she closes the door with a oft clink. Thankfully when she opened the door, we didn't hear a chainsaw going off in the form a snore so hopefully she and everyone else will be alright. After staring at the door for a few second, I lean back. "So this is what it's like to have friends." I tell myself once I finish shuffling into my sleeping bag. After staring at the night sky for a bit, I turn onto my side and close my eyes.

"I think I like it."

 **Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated this recently. With a plethora of new games to enjoy, essays and exams from school, I'm kind of all over the place with my writing. Already I've got half of the next chapters done for my other stories so hopefully those will be out soon. I hope this was alright for you all, especially since it was awhile since my last upload.**

 **I also came down with a cold that messed me up for almost a week so that took some time out of me too.**

 **In any case, despite all that, I hope you enjoy this, have a good day and have fun reading.**


	3. 2 The First Step

I have to say it wasn't all that bad sleeping outside. Since I had gone on my own, sleeping outside became the norm for me since I needed to spare as much money as I can to make it last. I could have gone for some really cheap hotel rooms but I didn't bother with those conditions. Sleeping outside actually gave me some peace in my life since I didn't have anyone to really… hang out with. It was also a good call because some guys did snore occasionally and screw with people's sleep patterns.

A lot of grumpy people were walking around, using the restroom, eating breakfast and so on. I didn't really see my friends when I walked back in so chances are they all went ahead to get ready for the days events. If I remember correctly, today we are supposed to take the test that determines whether or not we stay and attend the academy. Without further ado, I went ahead and continued the simple daily rituals of getting myself ready for what was to come. Nothing major happened while I used the restroom and ate breakfast, except for maybe an orange-haired girl who talked… all… the… time.

Like seriously, when I went to brush my teeth, she was talking to some guy so much from then to who knows when. She was talking during breakfast with a pancake in her mouth… and somehow inhaled the whole thing in one bite, to some other guy in a green shirt who was just simply listening and going about his day. I don't know what it was but it kind of looked like he was… not angry or annoyed but tired I guess you could say.

Right now though, I am standing in the locker room along with my friends and some other people who are also grabbing their gear in preparation for the test. I see the same group of cocky guys from before behind me on the other side of the room with Ruby and Yang on my right getting their weapons and Weiss and what I'm pretty sure is Pyrrha Nikos here as well to my left. _'Wow this place is just getting all kinds of the prestigious people ain't it.'_

"C'mon man! We got this!" A loud voice gets my attention. Glancing back, I see it's the three guys. Now that I'm closer, I get a better read of their appearances. The one talking has brown hair, a green long sleeved shirt with black pants and he seems very giddy about being here. One of the others looks a bit tense about his friend being how he is and he is slightly taller than both his friends, blonde hair, tough and beefy looking, and has some sort of brown armor on him with camo pants.

"James, do me a favor…" He closes his locker and looks at his friend with a slightly angry look. "Shut up." He then starts walking away with what looks like an axe.

"C'mon Jason, you know we got this in the bag!" James, apparently, boasts. "We've done everything we can to get here and there's no way we can fail now! Right Alex?" He walks after his friend with two knifes in his hands with the handles adding brass knuckles.

Alex meanwhile, wearing a white Jacket with tan pants, shrugs before grabbing a spear and walking after them. "I'm excited too man, but we just have to pass this test and we're golden. Although we need a fourth if I remember the rules about teams."

"Whatever, we got this." And with that, they make their way out of the locker rooms, much to my relief.

"Ehhh, I've been away from people for too long." I mutter. If that bit of conversation between them all put me somewhat on edge, I need to be more open.

"Ughhhh! You sound like Dad!" Ruby's frustrated and slightly angry tone gets my attention. "Okay, first of all: What does meeting new people have to do with fighting? And secondly: I don't need people to help me grow up! I drink milk!"

I smile at Ruby's antics and grab my weapons. _'Making progress Ethan.'_

"But what about when we form teams?" Yang tells her sister.

"Um, I don't know, I... I'll just be on your team or something..." Ruby replies nervously and sheepishly.

"Maybe you should try being on someone else's team?" Yang says nervously as well while playing with her long hair.

"My dearest sister Yang, are you implying that you do not wish to be on the same team as me?" Ruby points an accusatory finger at her sister, making me smirk.

"What? No! Of course I do!" Yang tries to dismiss it but sort of fails at it. "I just thought... I don't know, maybe it would help you... break out of your shell!"

"What the-?! I don't need to 'break out of my shell'! That's absolutely—"

"Ridiculous!" Jaune interrupts Ruby's rant but also finishes as he walks past us, holding a map and looking lost as well. "There's no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday. I would've remembered having to count that high. Why does this have to happen today?" We stare as he moves past us and continues to try to look for the long lost locker of his.

"Huh, sucks for him." I mutter before closing the locker.

"Well, if you won't let me be a part of your team, then I'll be a part of Ethan's team!" Suddenly a red hooded girl is clutching my right arm.

"What?!"

"What happened now?" I say confused at how I'm suddenly now the center of attention.

"Yeah. If you sooooo want me to be on someone else's team, then I'll go ahead and join Ethan's team." She states firmly without my consent. "What do you say Ethan?" She asks me with a smile.

I look at her confused. "Uhhhhh…" I draw out the moan confused at being put on the spot like that but Ruby goes ahead and gives me a puppy dog stare. "Uhhhh… I would love to Ruby," She breaks out into a wide grin, "But I'm not sure if we are allowed to PICK and choose who we become partners with." And I promptly crush her spirit unfortunately.

"Ohhhh." She lets me go and groans. I must be a lucky one to have met her so casually at the airship like this because she looks really tense and scared about joining a team of complete strangers.

"C'mon Ruby. Everything will work out. I promise." Yang tries to console her young sister in her depressed state. I can sympathize with her as well. I'm not really into meeting with strangers as well and I'm lucky to have met the people I have so far here. Ruby and Yang are people I would be relieved to be in a team with, even if the others in the team are strangers. Even Jaune—

"Whaaaaooooo!"

Who is promptly skewered against a wall by his hoodie with a spear. "I'm sorry!" The owner of the spear, our Spartan regalia wearing Pyrrha Nikos apologizes to the guy. Surprised at why she threw it at him, not surprised at the accuracy. Only a renowned fighter like her could have that level of accuracy and not kill him.

"Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately." Our future instructor, Glynda Goodwitch, her voice is heard over the intercom.

"Arm up! Let's get going." I yell to everyone in the room and check Razor's Revolt one last time.

"It was nice meeting you." Pyrrha says as she and wise walk past the pinned boy, in which the Spartan grabs her spear as well allowing Jaune to slump to the ground against the locker.

"Likewise…" He moans depressingly.

"Having some trouble there, lady-killer?" Yang teases as the three of us walk up to him with Ruby offering a hand to pick him up.

"I don't understand. My dad said all women look for is confidence. Where did I go wrong?" He asks in general before accepting Ruby's offered hand and uses her to lift himself back up.

"'Snow Angel' probably wasn't the best start." Yang says.

"She's prestigious man." I tell him as I wrap his left arm around my shoulders, allowing me to help him walk. "She's not used, or care to, interacting with the 'common' folk. It's never that easy my friend."

"Come on, Jaune, let's go." Ruby pats his shoulder as we start walking to Beacon Cliff with me supporting him and his damaged self-esteem.

* * *

It didn't take us long to find the cliff that we were told to find. Since we are now in the actual school itself, it wasn't that hard to find directions leading us to where we needed to go. At the cliff we saw over a dozen of these white tile things lining the edge of the cliff with the instructors Professor Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch standing in front of them towards us. Seeing as how we saw every other student there on the tiles, we took our places on them as well. There were just enough that I was the last one to fill up the last tile with Yang, Ruby, and Jaune next to me, with them in the order towards me.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin begins to start us off.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams.' Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today." Glynda tells us firmly.

"What? Ohhh…" Ruby however groans at the idea of getting put into a team so soon. I'm not really any better either, but I'm sure I can handle whatever and whoever I get.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

"Oohhhhh…" Ruby continues to groan.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"Whaaaat?!" And like a glass breaking, Ruby's entire world is shattered at the information that our chances of getting the partner we desire have drastically decreased. I'm not too fond of it either but it just means I have to be a bit more cautious and hopefully listen to the persons voice before actually meeting them. _'Hope that doesn't count against me.'_

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die." Our headmaster warns us grimly. Jaune meanwhile lets out a nervous laugh at the news and gulp loudly. "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" He finishes explaining and asks.

"Yeah, um, sir?" Jaune begins to ask with a raised hand.

"Good! Now, take you positions." Our headmaster promptly ignores him and advises us to do.

Almost as one, everyone starts getting into ready poses and stances for whatever it is we are supposed to do. The only person I am worried about though is Jaune who still has his arm raised up.

"Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question." He begins to say and then further down the line, the tile under Weiss Schnee rises up into a springboard, rocketing her into the air and over the forest. More platforms activate down the line as Jaune continues to talk. "So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?" He asks oblivious of the springboards activating.

"No. You will be falling." Ozpin tells answers.

"Oh, uh, I see... So, like, did you hand out parachutes for us?" He asks and amazingly, still not noticing the rapidly disappearing and launching group of students.

"Uh, Jaune?" I try to get his attention.

"No. You will be using your own 'landing strategy.'" The professor interrupts me.

"Uh-huh… yeah." He understands nervously but still confused.

Shaking my head at him, I look past him to see Yang wink to Ruby and I, then puts on a pair of aviators, "Woo-hoooooooo!" And gets launched into the sky with a happy cry followed by Ruby.

"Jaune?" I try one last time.

"So, what exactly is a landing strategYYYYYYYYY!..." My oblivious friend gets launched high into the sky, screaming all the way.

I look down at the headmaster, who promptly sips his coffee, and gives me a smile. "Good luck."

"Oh boy." I bend my knees, cross my arms across my chest and prepare myself for my journey.

Barely a second later when I get into my pose, the full weight of gravity and air hits me as I am launched high into the sky.

* * *

For most civilians and those who live normal lives, seeing a bunch of students flying through the air would come off as somewhat odd and horrifying.

But a huntsman and huntress of Beacon Academy, those thoughts aren't apparent. The new freshman of Beacon Academy are sent through the air as part of their initiation test and need to do a specific objective in order to pass.

Firstly though, they all need to make sure they don't end up as a red smear on the grass floor, or impaled on a random tree. Most of the students use their weapons explosive gun force capabilities to soften their landing and lessen their speed of descent, such as Ruby Crescent Rose, Yang's Ember Celica, and Nora's Magnhild. Others such as Ren, Weiss and Blake have to use a more agile and flexible way of landing since their weapons don't have as much concussive force.

For Ethan though and his Razor's Revolt, his means of landing isn't explosive, flashy, agile or quickly thought up on the spot. It's relatively in some regard.

As he is launched high into the air and quickly follows the rest of the students through the sky, he watches as all the other students begin descending to the ground and tries to keep track of where his friends have fallen. So far he's got three people to keep track of but unfortunately they move pretty fast. Jaune is lost pretty quickly with his somewhat dark clothing, Ruby's red hood stands out pretty well but is lost past the tree line, and Yang's freakishy large, long and yellow as the sun hair stands out as well but she moves very very fast before he can keep track of her. Grunting in annoyance, Ethan decides to go ahead and enact his own landing strategy.

Uncurling his arms outward, his chakram blades roll into his hands and with a flourish, they unfold into the giant four bladed weapons and start spinning at intense speeds. With the new force of air being pushed, his descent to the ground and in the air gradually begins to slow down. As he slows himself down, he just hangs in the air for a bit before he starts to drift downwards to the ground. At that point it's just waiting for the ground to touch his feet.

Not even a minute passes before his impromptu helicopter formation cuts through some small tree branches before he flicks the switch and lands into a crouch. "Guah!" He grunts as he hits the forest floor roughly. With a sigh he stands up, pops his neck and holsters his blades. "Well, that could have gone better."

"Thank you!"

"I'm sorry!"

Off in the distance, Jaune thanks someone and what sounds like Pyrrha apologizing. "Better for some than others." He mutters before starting to walk. "Alright then, I need to be careful and try to NOT get partnered with someone I do not want to be with. Dang it, I was so focused on looking for my friends I didn't see where everyone else landed." He crouches under a low hanging branch before pushing past some thick bushes. "I just have to keep an eye out for others first before they see me. If I can do that, I should be able to get the partner I want without having to actually lock eyesight with them. Technically that won't be against the rul—"

"Hey!"

Ethan freezes and looks around for the source of the voice. Strange thing is, it sounds like from all around him.

"Hey!"

"Hm?" Ethan grumbles as he looks around for the guy that apparently sees him but he can't see them.

"Up here!" Ethan flinches at the new info before looking up instinctively. Standing right next to a really large tree, high above it theirs a guy hanging upside from one of the branches. To Ethan's annoyance and slight horror, it's one of the guys from the locker room. More specifically, the guy called James. "Soooooo happy to see you man! Actually at this point I'm happy to see anyone. So, you think you can help me out here so we can get to know each other my future partner?" He tells Ethan with a smile.

Ethan however just stares at the helpless guy hanging from the tree. His… future partner. His head droops downward before pressing the side of his head with one of his hands. "Crap."

 **I am so sorry for those you who like this story. I've put this off for too long and with such a short chapter, I have no excuse and I apologize to you guys. In any case, I'm finished with my college classes for now so I don't have to worry about anything getting in the way of all my stories.**

 **I'm sorry for delaying this for you all and hopefully I can make it up to you for future chapters and the continued development of this story. I think the reason why I'm sort of a little delaying myself in this stories development is probably because their haven't been any new episodes for RWBY but I'm gonna push myself out of that. Plus the new RWBY chibi series will be out soon and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't anticipating those new episodes. They may not be canon but man are they awesome and funny to see.**

 **With that done, I'm still gonna get to work on the rest of my stories but hopefully I should be able to get more out for this story especially without any school classes to keep my busy.**

 **As always everyone, have a great day, and have fun reading.**


	4. 3 The Emerald Forest

"Uhhh, hello? Can you help me out?" My… future partner calls from his hanging position on the tree.

It's been close to half-a-minute now since that revelation hit me and I've just been standing here. I guess I should have figured that the chance of me getting partnered up with someone other than my friends was there… but the chance of it ACTUALLY happening wasn't apparent to me. "Ehhhhh." I groan as I realize that chances are, the instructors are in fact watching us, so I can't get out of this.

"Hey! Can you help—"

*Ch-Chink*

In one move, Revolt in my right hand slips into my hand and like when I was falling, the blades pop out and start spinning. With a curl back of my arm, I throw it upwards.

"Whoa!" James yelps as my blade comes dangerously close to tearing through him, but it doesn't and instead does that to the branch he's hanging out. "Aaahhhhh! Pah!" He begins falling before grunting as he lands on his face. Neither of us say anything as I simply stare with a neutral look at the body that dropped right in front of me, and he lets out a low groan barely audible. Slowly, his body collapses onto his back with his legs propped up against the tree. We stare at each other, upside down from each other's perspective. "Thanks."

"…" I don't really reply say anything to him. A fluttering in the air can be heard and he gets a momentary look of scared shock on his face…

…At least until I catch Revolt coming back to us. Extending my arm upwards, I grab the middle handle before it can kill either of us. His face now has a look of just shock on it. I holster my weapon and start walking away from him. "He-Hey! Wait up!" I don't bother to turn around as he scrambles to his feet and proceeds to chase after me. It doesn't take long for him to catch up to me. "Wow dude! That was pretty cool! Those are some nice blade you got there. When we finish this test you think I can—" I interrupt him for a second with a raised hand. We both stop walking from my action, and I slowly walk forward with my palm still pointed at him. Only a couple feet forward is when I stop and turn around, staring straight at my partner.

With slow movement, I bring my hand down and take a deep breath. "Listen, I'm not good with people. I'm really not." I tell him firmly. "I've been on my own till now and I'm gonna be straight up… I really don't like this. I really don't like the idea of being on a team and the very least, I was hoping to be paired up with someone else." I say and turn my head away from him. Out of the corner of my eye, I see his form visibly deflate at my declaration. Seeing him not getting back up, I sigh and cross my arms as I look at him. "But," He perks up, "I don't really have a choice right now since the headmaster specifically told us, _'_ _the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years'_ and that's what happened." I tell and I let my arms fall to my sides. "So let's promise each other something, alright? You don't annoy me with your constant talking and badgering, and I'll… make an effort to be friends. Okay?" I offer to him with a sigh.

With an elated smile, he nods. "You got it man! I promise you won't regret it!"

"See to it that I don't." I warn him. I may be going a little hard on the guy, but I've dealt with plenty of annoying people in the past and if I am going to be partnered with him for the rest of my time at Beacon Academy, I'm gonna need to suck it up and make this work. Glancing to the side, I smirk back at him. "Now… take out your weapons." He looks at me confused. "Go on." He pulls out both his knuckle knives. "Good, now…" I slide Razors Revolts into my hands. "Show me what you got."

"Wha-What?!"

"NOW!"

*ROOOAAAR!*

A large Beowolf jumps out from a thicket of trees and bushes to my right with its claws poised to take my head off. I slide under it and with a flick up a switch, my blades serrate and start spinning. I bring one of them up and jam it into its stomach before forcing it into the ground. Before it can get up, I bring my other down and running along its body, killing it. I return my blade back to their normal state just as more of them start coming out from around us. I quickly look around and spot almost a dozen of them have surrounded us and eager to destroy us. Crouching low to the ground, I glance at James to see him in his own boxer ready position, his left blade in the reverse grip and the right is normal. "You got this?"

"Feh!" He scoffs and as a Grimm comes at him, he ducks the things swipe before getting right up into its face and delivering a series of punches and jabs to its face, disorienting it. He follows up with his right blade stabbing up into its outstretched left arm. He then pulls his left up and slices it across its chest, over his shoulder and brings the blade down into its face, right where its eye is. The Beowolf goes limp instantly and rapidly starts to disappear when he rips his weapons out and lets the body fall. He bounces on the balls of his feet with a grin on his face before glancing to me, "Oh, I do. Can you?"

' _He. Well you can't fault him for his confidence.'_ "Well, alright then." I mutter and turn my attention back to my own group of enemies. "Let's do this!" I yell my challenge to them.

With a collective roar, they charge me, as do James's for him.

I dash forward and jump kick one in the face, propelling him back while two more try to attack my from my sides. Bringing both my arms up, I block their attacks before pushing back and spinning around, slicing them to death. Another comes at me with both arms outstretched to its sides and tries to slash me with both it's claws in opposite directions but I bash both its arms away, leaving it wide open. Moving forward, I slice its stomach a couple times, then the chest, and finally follow up with a round house kick, sending it back. I somersault back to put a little distance away from the others and as soon as I land on my feet do I throw both of Razor and Revolt at two of them coming straight at me. Both of them each hit one each and rip into their chests before launching skywards. I dash forward and launch a palm strike to the one on the left, sending it flying back onto the ground and bringing my leg around for a kick to the right, sending him to fall onto the ground next to his friend. I raise my arms into the air and catch my weapons before spinning around with both weapons outstretched, lopping off their heads as they try to sit up.

James continues to fight back against his opponents in roughly the same spot he's been in. He continues to pummel, slash and stab each Grimm that tries to come at him. He holds them back pretty well but it I spot a train of them trying to come at him from the side as a means in order to overwhelm him.

I don't allow that however as at the right moment I extend Revolt in it's completely open set and throw it towards them. Revolt spins at breakneck speed, cutting through small branches of trees before it kills a row of Grimm that were planning to ambush James. There is a small lull in the fight and it allows us to catch our breaths. The both of us breathe hard and examine all around to make sure that we are clear of all our enemy hostilities.

"Is that all of them?" James asks, his weapons still up and ready to attack in case he's wrong. I don't reply, focusing more on the examining of the area and my quickly returning weapon.

Extending my arm up, I catch Revolt and compact both blades onto my arms. "Yeah, it looks like it." I say with a quick look around the area. "C'mon. Let's get out of here before more of them show up." He nods at my suggestion and we start jogging through the woods as fast as we can. All the while we keep our ears open and do what we can to listen around us for anymore ambushes we may encounter. Several minutes pass as we continue moving non-stop until a bit of fatigue starts to set in. I come to a stop in a small clearing and take another look around until I am satisfied we are alone. "Alright, this seems like a good spot to rest." I expect a response but looking back I find I am alone. "James?"

"Uhhh." The guy walks out from behind some bushes, breathing heavily. "Oh man. Ah crap… so tired. Just… guuu… give me a sec." He breaths heavily as he leans against a tree before sitting down against the tree.

"This place is a good spot to rest anyway. We're pretty far from where we were attacked and our ragged movement will hopefully confuse any scavengers from the site."

"Geez man… how are you still standing? I'm pretty winded from all that running." He tiredly says.

"I move around a lot. I'm a little tired but I'm still well enough for now." I explain to him. With all the on the move stuff I did before I made it to Beacon, the long running we did wasn't as tiring to me than it was for James. _'He should really exercise more if he wants to attend classes here.'_

"Well, lucky you." He jokes and takes a moment to breathe a bit more. I concentrate and continue to look around to make absolutely sure that we aren't going to be ambushed by any sort of Grimm creature. Ignoring the labored steady breathing of James, the only thing I hear is the steady bristles of the wind on the trees, the very distant and barely audible signs of the other students fighting, and the chattering of woodland creatures, not Grimm.

"Alright, I don't hear any Grimm nearby so I don't think we have to worry about getting ambushed again." I inform him.

"That's good." He mutters. Since we're taking the break we need, I decide to do a quick check up of my weapons to make sure their alright after the fighting. I did after all make them go through Grimm bone and many branches of trees in under half an hour. Opening Razor up completely, I keep Revolt still together in case we somehow do get rushed and I have at least one weapon ready to fight. I grab a rag from my pocket and proceed to polish off the tree sap and debris caught on the blades. Thankfully none of it got within the joints and movement parts so I don't have to worry about the spin functions messing up anytime soon. Once Razor is finished, I put it back together and move onto Revolt. It's the same situation so I don't have to worry about any problems either. "Hey, where do we need to go?" I look up from my work and look at James.

"The temple ruins to the north. Where else." I answer like it's the most obvious answer in the world.

"Yeah I know but… where is the temple?" At his question, I finish assembling my weapons and look around. "For that matter, where is north?"

Looking towards the sky, I try to get a reading of the sun in hopes of figuring out where North is from the placement of the sun, but its position very high in the sky negates me from doing that. "Damn. We moved so fast and so far to get away from the Grimm we lost track of where we needed to go." I complain. Another problem is the trees are pretty thick so we can't look any where off the bat to find where we need to go.

"So what do we do?" He asks.

Standing in the middle of the clearing I look again for any hope of finding any indication but there's nothing, much to my chagrin. With a sigh, I concentrate. "Hold on. Let me try something."

"What?" James asks confused but Ignore him and do what I need to do.

Crouching on one knee, I clench my hand in front of me and concentrate my power again. Similar to what happened before when Jaune, Ruby and I got lost on the first day, I let out my concentrated power and stand. Staring towards the sky, I look at sun before a bird moves into my review as it becomes silhouetted by the sun. I watch it for a few seconds as it goes through the air and keep track of its direction. "I know where to go. Let's move." I tell James without looking back at him.

"How do you… Mm, know?" He asks as he gets to his feet and walks up to me.

"… Call it instinct." I give the excuse and walk off towards the direction we need to go with James trailing behind me.

* * *

Time passes as we move through the forest around us, opting to keep silent so we don't attract anymore unwanted attention like the first time we met. James was talking for a bit at first but after giving the somewhat subtle hint of Grimm possibly hearing us, he promptly shut up, especially since he didn't want to take the risk of us getting lost again.

All the while, we have to contend with the sounds of continued fighting throughout the forest. Some seem simple and small but soon after I'm starting to hear the telltale sounds of intense combat coming in from the direction we are heading. What's even worse is that I saw the shape of a Nevermore heading straight for the same direction too. Strange thing is I could have sworn I saw a red and white shape under the Nevermore but couldn't properly make it out from this distance.

"I'm really not liking all that noise up ahead." I hear James mutter behind me. He most likely means about the sounds coming from the direction of the ruins we are supposed to be heading to. I don't reply however as I try to make out just what type of Grimm's might be there. The Nevermore is obvious and maybe some Ursa's but those went away really quick. Being alone for so long and on the move in the wilderness I've take to trying to identify as many specific Grimm noises as I can in hopes to avoid them. Now though I can mentally prepare just how the fight is that we might get into. "I hope my friends are okay. What about yours?" James asks.

"I'm not really worried about them. They seem pretty capable to handle whatever is thrown at them." I reply. _'Ruby and Yang sure, but Jaune may be another case. If he can find a good partner then maybe he won't be completely dead in this place.'_ I think.

"I hope so. My friends are good and awesome but I still worry about them." He comments. I guess I can somewhat relate too. I've only known my new friends pretty recently and while they seem like capable fighters, I still feel pang of worry. I shake my head though of the possibility of them being hurt as I jump over a fallen tree trunk, then another and another until I find that we are in the destructive path of something big. "Whoa. What did this?" James asks as he stares at the destruction.

Taking a step forward, I look at the prints that were made in the ground. There's only one set of footprints going along the path and a lot of small holes off to the side. From the chopped trees as another indication, I grimace. "This… isn't good." I moan as I equip my weapons.

"What is it?" James asks worried as he pulls out his knives after seeing me arm up.

"This path was made by a Deathstalker chasing someone straight for the ruins." I explain as we follow the trail.

"Do you know who?"

"No idea. But we better get moving. The fight sounds like it's getting bad." I say and we go into a jog. True to my words, the fighting ahead of us starts to get a bit more heated and fierce.

"I hope Alex and Jason are there… or not. I don't know what to hope for." He says as he matches my speed.

I nod along with him as with how bad things sound, I don't know if whether I should hope that my friends aren't there in the middle of the danger, or they will be and I can help. "Let's see what's going on then." I say sternly and start to run forward with my arms stretched out. James matches my speed in hopes that we can help whoever's in trouble.

It doesn't take us long to get to where we need to go. Thankfully the Deathstalkers trail through the trees allows us to go directly to where the ruins are since we don't have to worry about any blocking foliage besides a few fallen trees. As we make it into the clearing, we come upon a sight that makes us pause. I was right before on the Grimm that were here. The Deathstalkers tail is stuck in a large plume of ice and there is a Nevermore circling up above. "This doesn't look good." I mutter.

"Over there!" James points away from the Deathstalker several dozen feet away from us. I make out a pedestal that contains the relics and several different colored human shapes as well. Looking a little closer, I smile as I see Yang, Ruby and Jaune there along with a bunch of other people.

"Good. Doesn't look like things are that bad here." I comment.

*Crack*

My hope diminishes a bit however as the ice holding its tail breaks and it takes off after the group of students with the Nevermore preparing to dive-bomb them. "Aaaaaand now they're bad."

"Shut up." I tell James before moving forward. "Let's follow. Hopefully we can find a opening to help them." I propose.

"Right behind you!" He replies with a smile and continues with me.

Unfortunately we don't get very far before something derails us.

"HEEEEEEELLP!" The sudden shout and cry for help stops us in our tracks before we can follow the main group of students. We turn around to the forest where the cry came from. "Please help!" The cry comes from a pair of students that come running out of the tree line towards us. They don't look good however as one of them is being helped to run along by the other. The injured one has a long line of red running down the side of his body. _'Wait, those look a bit fami—'_

"Oh no… JASON! ALEX!" James yells their names and bolts after them without any regard.

"Wait!" I try to stop him but he's too fast. What makes it worse is the fact that a small group of Beowolf's and Ursa's come charging after them. One Beowold manages to stretch its claw out just enough to nick Jason in the leg who was helping Alex. "Grrr!" I growl at the immediate danger and set my blades to spin at max speed. "God damnit!" I grunt and charge.

* * *

 **This has been sorely overdue. I am so sorry for those of you that have been waiting for this but my drive to write this story was a bit lacking at around half way through this chapter. Even now I'm not a hundred percent satisfied with this chapter and I feel as though I rushed it when I actually 'felt' like writing it again. Another problem was that there was this new drop of episodes for Steven Universe and I was so hyped for what they showed I just couldn't help myself in making several chapters in a row for my 'A Tale of A Jade' story.**

 **Either way, I'm going back to my regular schedule of working on all my stories one after another so as long as nothing else comes up that diverges my attention, I should be cranking out chapters for all my stories at a steady pace.**

 **Now onto other RWBY content. I came back from RTX and I managed to attend the RWBY panel at the first day. Had to wait in line for 2 hours after the Camp Camp panel was capped and the place was almost completely packed when they finally let us in till the panel actually started. The teaser videos they showed us of Chibi were funny and the teaser for the new volume was awesome too. Can't wait to see just what new stuff their going to give us in the next set of episodes. It didn't really give us a ton of stuff to contemplate and speculate as to what might exactly happen but regardless it looks good.**

 **Again, sorry for the long wait and the next chapter I am really looking forward to showing you all because it'll reveal something I've kept somewhat hidden for Ethan and should differentiate him from everyone else.**

 **Anyway as always, thank you all for your patience, have a great day and have fun reading.**


	5. 4 Players and Pieces

"Think you can you make the shot?"

"Hm, can I?"

"… Can y—"

"Of course I can!"

Knowing she's in good hands, Ruby cocks a new round into Crescent Rose as Weiss turns the glyph holding her from black to red. Activating, it releases Ruby at such a speed that the ground behind her launch cracks and breaks, rose petals flying from her ascent. As she flies through the air she continues to fire from her weapon to continue to propel her forward without losing momentum. With each new shot, she gets closer and closer to the trapped Nevermore on the ice until her scythe catches it's neck in the curve of the blade and causes them both to crash into the cliff wall. Taking the opportunity, Weiss raises her sword and creates a series of white glyph circles up the wall to the top, which Ruby dashes through by firing the entire way up.

Yang, Blake, and an exhausted Weiss watch her climb up with the bird in her grasp, tearing apart the cliff as the Grimm is dragged through the rocks. The second the both of them reach the top, the Grimm cries out in pain and Ruby in determination as her feet leave the rock wall, making her circle up on its neck and she fires one last shot, rending the Nevermore's head from its shoulders with a sickening slice and a shower of petals.

She lands beside the severed head on top of the cliff as the body of the giant Nevermore falls lifeless to the ruins and crevice below while the girls and farther away, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren watch in amazement.

"Wow…" Jaune breaths out in amazement at the action. For them they were able to take out the giant scorpion Grimm known as the Deathstalker so with the bridge out they were forced to watch as Ruby, Wiess, Blake and Yang took on the Nevermore. Thankfully they didn't have to wait long as with a combined effort they decapitated the bird Grimm.

Ruby, her cape and petals flowing with the wind, looks down to her friends as they peer up towards her.

"Well... That was a thing." Yang comments after seeing what her little sister did.

Ruby looks down at where everyone else with a smile on her face to see them all safe and sound. Well… almost everyone. "Huh, I wonder where's Ethan?" She asks herself. Throughout the whole time she landed in the forest, met Weiss, rode the Nevermore and fought, she didn't see any evidence of where her new friend is. As her eyes peer to where her sister is, to Blake, Weiss, to Jaune and the others does she look up to see something off in the distance. With a twirl of her weapon, she straightens up and looks through the scope at what's going on. Peering through it, she notices just what's going on close to the forest where everyone came out from to get the chess pieces. One person is taking on a mixed group of Beowolf's and Ursa's with what looks like three other guys injured on the ground. As the one fighting slices an Ursa on the stomach and it falls down does she recognize the face and weapons. "Oh no!" She cries out at seeing her friend in danger. "Look!" She yells to everyone below her as she points to the fighting.

The echo of the canyon allows her voice to travel and the others hear her loud cry. Both groups of people turn around and see just what's got her attention.

* * *

"Hra! Ha! Yeeeaaaa!" I yell out loud as I continue to slice twist and turn repeatedly wherever I can. The large of Grimm is tough going and its even worse when some of them decide to go for the weaker of the four of us. Now James and I have to hold them back and make sure they don't get to his friends.

"Aaaaah!" The loud cry of pain makes my heart sink as I turn around to see James flying through the air and rolling in a heap to his friends. A bit of red stains the ground he rolls on until he lies still next to them. A Beowolf pounces to them but I'm already in motion. Just before it can hit them, Revolt embeds itself into its skull mid-air with me following soon after. Planting both my feet on the soon to be disappearing corpse, I launch myself off it until I land in front of my injured classmates with both weapons in hand. After the exploits of today, from the fighting, running and tracking, I'm starting to become a little winded and the fact that I'm the only one capable of fighting right now with three others injured behind me, it's not looking good. Looking back I see Alex is pretty beat up, with some scratches on his body, a cut arm and a twisted ankle. Jason is adorned with bruises all over his body and could probably help with the fighting if it wasn't for the earlier slash to his leg when he was running, rendering him unable to properly stand. James though isn't that beat up, mostly bruised and battered but it's the fact that the hit that sent him flying has put him unconscious.

"Damn." I curse in anger at the sheer situation I've put myself in. _'This is why I don't do teams. If I was alone, I could run and pick them off one by one. Now I'm stuck here!'_ I think angrily as I clench my hands hard on the handles of my weapons. The Grimm around me shift a bit, no doubt feeling the anger I am giving off. With careful practiced breathing I start to examine the possibilities of the situation. "… Jason, right?" I ask without looking back.

"… Ye… Mmm, yeah." I hear him grunt, no doubt trying to pour his aura into healing his wounds but the cut alone was pretty bad. "What do you need?"

"You're the least injured. Can you try to move the others towards the ruins? I saw the other students go off in that direction. Maybe you can get their attention." I tell him. Some of the Grimm start to move to the side to try to get at the injured but I give them a glare and they focus their attention back on me. I also start to flex my muscles in preparation for the fight.

"Ughhhh, I can try. Alex?"

"Sort of. You'll have to take James though. I can crawl, at best."

"Good. That's all I need." With the plan set, I need to focus the Grimm's attention solely on me. "Get going." I say and my breathing starts to get fierce as I let the emotions flow.

"You think you can hold them all?" Jason asks as he starts to hoist James closer to him.

I don't answer. Instead focusing completely on myself with my eyes closed. Grimm are drawn to negative emotions. _'If that's what they want, I'll give it to them.'_ I let the memories flow of the intense training my family put me through since I was born. The fighting, the studying, learning and fights they put me through when I was a Grimm damn kid! The feelings of being alone, away from them as they didn't act like parents but instead were drill instructors starts to make it's way to the forefront of my mind but it's the hatred for them that I focus on.

My hands clench. Teeth grit. My eyes shoot open as I let out a low growl of anger loud enough for them all to hear. The Grimm moving to intercept my injured classmates stop in their tracks and look to me, drawn to the intense emotions I am giving off. "No." I growl out for the others to hear. With a swing of my arms, Razors Revolt opens op completely and the twin helicopter blade function starts spinning at the highest setting. The Grimm back up a second but quickly move closer as they start to growl at me, accepting my challenge. "I'm gonna kill them all… RAAAAAH!" I charge forward.

A Beowolf answers first and tries to slash my head but I bring Razor in my left hand up and slice it claw off followed by slicing its head with Revolt in my right hand. I step back and quickly bring my right arm up just as an Ursa tries to hit me. It's attack pushes me a little but I push back, cutting it with the spinning blades but my main attack is to slash it in the stomach. It's enough to kill it as it falls back dead. Turning back to my enemy's, I move forward and slash through more Beowolf's and Ursa's, flaring my hatred as much as I can to keep them focused on me. As I slice horizontally at the midsection of an Ursa, I turn around and have barely enough time to bring my weapons up as a Boarbatusk comes spin rolling straight towards me. With a grunt, I slice back a few feet as the spinning boar Grimm continues to spin on me, sparks flying from my weapon and it's attack repeatedly hitting each other. I continue to slide back but I eventually come to stop and with a grunt of effort, I push the Grimm upwards. It gets launched into the sky and starts coming back down towards me but I kill it mid-air by throwing Razor straight at it, slicing it straight through the middle. Instead of waiting for it come back down, I quickly turn around and slice away a sneaking Beowolf, giving me some breathing room. _'Damn, because of my feelings I harbored, I gained too much attention. I brought more of them into the fight.'_ I grimly think as I spot a few more Boarbatusk coming out of the woodwork to join in the circle around me. Catching a glimpse past some of them, I spot all of those injured have managed to move a lot closer to the ruins. That's good but still might be close enough for some Grimm to attack them.

Turning forward, and Ursa tries to slice at me but I duck under its attack, making its body go right over me. Unfortunately, it completely forgets my second weapon falling to ground as it cuts through it and embeds into the ground. Twisting around I quickly grab Razor and pull it back into my grip before rolling away from the disappearing Ursa body. As I go to stand, I switch my blades into their smaller but still serrated forms and block a claw strike that sends me flying. I roll on the ground a few times before sliding into a crouch. Quickly getting into a stand we go back to fighting as more of the Grimm start to fight me together rather than one on one. I dance around as fast as I can, slicing and cutting through as many of them as I can but I'm starting to waver from fatigue. Evidence of that happens when after I block an Ursa strike does a Boarbatusk come out of nowhere and slam into me. "Arrrrh!" I yell in pain as I fly through the air several feet and roughly roll on the ground a few times. Lying in a heap, I take a second to catch my breath from my spot on the grassy floor. With a groan I get onto my hands and feet and look up to see the Grimm slowly and menacingly advancing on me. With Razors Revolt in front of me, I reach forward and grab the both of them before looking behind me. To my relief, James, Jason and Alex have made it to the ruins and are out of site. "Good." I groan as I stand to my feet and smile. "Now I can call for backup." Closing my eyes, I extend my arms away from me and clench my hands tightly on the handles of my weapons. Concentrating my power as much as I can, I open my eyes and get ready to call for backup with my arms folded over my front. "Raven. Shadow. Come to me." I whisper and thrust my arms outward. A blast of air is thrust out in all directions around me, pushing the grass and sending the Grimm in front of me flinching back. They shake their heads from the attack and two Beowolfs decide enough is enough and charge at me. I don't bother bringing my weapons up, instead I simply stare at them as they continue to charge towards me with murderous intent.

*Shink*

They don't get far as two streaks of black shadows pass by in front of them, killing them instantly as they fall to the ground. The two black streaks come around again, one of them flying through the air and the other moving along the ground. With slow grace, my two friends come to either side of me. Extending my left arm, Raven lands on my arm with a flap of its wings before settling down and Shadow stalks up next to me, bearing down on the opposing Grimm with malice in his eyes. What's odd about this scene is the fact that both Raven and Shadow are both in fact Grimm themselves. Not like the normal common Grimm most have seen. No, the two that are bonded to me are special.

Shadow, my wolf pet Grimm is in fact a wolf, not a Beowolf, but what you'd see as a regular animal but looks like the Grimm version of one. Being on all fours, he is as stall as to my hip but looks deadly nonetheless when he gets ready to pounce. His head bears the usual white skull of Grimm, his fur as black as theirs and his tail can be as sharp as the sharpest of any blade out there when he wishes.

Raven is what you would consider to be a miniature version of a Nevermore. His body structure is akin to what a Nevermore looks like but more so to a bald eagle and can be as deadly. With the same ability to launch its feathers as projectiles at whomever he wishes, his wings can also slice through most material, organics and some Grimm with ease. The white skull on Grimm covers the entirety of Raven's head with sharp smooth teeth ready to cut through and bite anything he deems a threat.

As it stands, the group of Grimm surrounding us is indeed a threat. Shadow lets out a howl in preparation to attack and Raven expands his wings outwards. "Take them!" I yell while pointing my free hand to the Grimm. Both of them take the queue and Shadow charges forward while Raven takes to the sky. Not wanting to let them go at it alone, I charge forward with my own weapons in their smooth regular mode with Shadow moving next to me. A Beowolf moves to intercept us but a flurry of arrow fire from tears into it, sending it falling to the ground away from us. Next Shadow takes on an Ursa by latching onto its throat with its teeth and I tackle a Boarbatusk before it could start rolling. It squeals for a second before I slice at it dead with my blades. Jumping back I see Shadow tearing out a chunk from the Ursa he tackled and it goes limp dead before he goes off to take on more of them. Turning to look around, I see that my actions before and now with my pets helping the Grimm's numbers are considerably lesser. I turn to the sky and see Raven preparing a dive bomb on some of our opponents. He glides through the group with ease and slices through a couple of them before taking off the head of one. A Beowolf pounces into the air and tries to grab him out of the sky as he but I catch it before it can grab him. Setting the serrated function, I through Revolt straight at it, embedding the blade into its stomach and knocking it away from him towards the ground. With him safe, I turn back to Shadow to see him trying to tear through a Boarbatusk but its armor makes it tough for him to get at it. Doing the same to Razor, I throw it through the air in a curve upwards. The circular blade twists through the air and comes back down towards the back of the neck on the Ursa moving to attack Shadow from behind. The Ursa falls back from the hit and I smile at the move.

Unfortunately, that was my last weapon on me so I am not able to defend myself from a pouncing Beowolf. I grunt as I slam into the dirt and slide a few feet with the murderous monster on top of me. I'm slightly dazed from the attack but I can still feel it pinning my arms down with its claws and its maw reeling back. I barely manage to move my head to the side as it comes down and nearly chomps on my head, instead hitting dirt. It repeats the attack a few times and all I'm able to do is simply angle my head away from its chomping jaws. It eventually gets fed up with my dodging and opts to bring its right claw upwards to eviscerate me. Unfortunately for it now, my left arm is free and just before its claw manages to hit me I bring my arm up and using what Aura I have left I block its attack. The attack hits hard on the barrier on my hand and I rapidly feel myself being drained of energy. The exploits of today already taking its toll on me. _'C'mon… c'mon… don't stop now! Not now!'_ I think with gritted teeth and sweat forming on my head. The Beowolf snarls as it pushes it's claw closer and closer to me until the tip of its claw comes within inches from my neck. "Nooo…" I groan as I close my eyes and prepare for the hit.

I feel the claw touch my ne—

*BOOM*

The pressure against me finally lets up after the massive boom of a gun going off. Opening my eyes, I see a now headless Beowolf on top of me before it falls down to the side. Incredibly tired, I stare into the sky for a few seconds before I carefully sit up with a groan and then standing. Taking a moment to catch my breath, I look up to see my savior is Ruby. She is holding the still smoking barrel of Crescent Rose towards me with everyone else with her. Her sister Yang, Weiss, the black haired bow wearing girl who despises Weiss, Jaune, Pyrrha, the pink haired girl who talks a lot and the green shirt wearing guy who listened. Even the injured guys I bought time for are here as well. All of them have looks of pure shock on their faces. It takes me a moment to figure out what's got them so surprised until I feel a nudge on my leg. Looking down I see Shadow holding one of my weapons in his teeth and pointing it to me. Looking back to the others, I groan as I realize now why their surprised. It's not every day that a creature of Grimm isn't trying to maul me. I pat him on the head before taking my weapon and holstering it. A cry from above catches my attention to Raven sweeping down and dropping my second weapon. I catch easily before holstering it as he lands on the ground. Looking at the two of them, I sigh as its pretty evident that a bunch of people have just seen my special ability. With the wave of my hand, Shadow and Raven nod before taking off away from us. As they go into the forest, they disappear into clouds of smoke.

I turn around to the other students to still see their expressions haven't changed. _'Great… this is just great.'_ I depressingly think as I look at the ground. This is a secret that my family harbors. That I have harbored for so long that has caused many people to look at me with fear and as a freak. I've shunned by them and people I thought close or friends cast me aside. Seeing as how I'm just about to start a whole new chapter in my life here, I can only imagine how bad things will be now that they know about my… ability. With a sigh, I look to the side and see the elevated steps to some ruined pedestals.

I walk towards the ruins where I see the relics we need to get for our objective. Taking one last look at everyone I reach for the piece.

I grab the white pawn chess piece.

* * *

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Professor Ozpin names the students as their names on the screen of the auditorium we are in shows their faces and profiles. Every student who appeared and took part in the entrance exam for the school are here and watching the different students be given their team names and teammates. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by… Cardin Winchester!" The professor announces firmly for everyone to hear and make it official. The audience gives one more wave of ovation for them while they walk off and four more students walk up to the stage to take their places in front of the headmaster as their faces fill the screen as well. I am standing off to the side and watching the whole thing because I can already tell things aren't going to go well for me. As it stands, the teams are set up in fours and mine aren't here. Not all of the students who participated in the exam are here because those that aren't were hospitalized because they were unable to retrieve the relics and failed or would be put out of commission for too long to train as huntsmen and huntresses. The people who were supposed to be with me from what I can tell, James, Jason and Alex, were taken to the nearest hospital to be taken care because their injuries were just too severe. Since all the teams have been taken and filled up, leaving me alone, I'm just waiting for everything to pass before I'm told I have to go. _'Shame too. I was a little excited for this place.'_

The people at the front of the stage now and are being placed in their own is Jaune, Pyrrha, and the pink haired girl and green shirt wearing guy whose names I now know as Nora and Ren. "Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie." Ozpin introduces their names as their profiles come up too. "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR." Amid the clapping of the audience, Nora laughs and gives Ren a hug. "Led by... Jaune Arc!"

"Huh? L-Led by...?"

"Jaune?" Both he and I are a bit surprised at the declaration of him being named the team's leader. I've only known the guy for barely a couple days and he doesn't strike me as the leader type.

"Congratulations, young man." Regardless of both of our surprises, the headmaster congratulates him nonetheless. A grinning Pyrrha offers a friendly shoulder bump to Jaune, but her 'fine leader' is knocked over to the ground quite easily in front of the laughing audience. I chuckle a little at the sight before everyone settles down for the final team to be announced.

"And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." He calls their names as he motions over the four as they stand before him. When Yang and Ruby pass by me, I give them each a smile and a nod, which they return. Weiss doesn't acknowledge me and Blake only glances at me before they get onto the stage. Frankly I'm surprised that their even talking to and looking at me. After I grabbed the relic, the bulkheads came in and started picking up everyone to take them to the hospital or to Beacon Academy. I stayed silent the whole time and faced away from everyone, not wanting to raise any ire but more so wishing to get back already. Now though, things aren't as bad as I first thought. "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"

A grin spreads across my face as its Ruby that becomes the defacto leader of their team. She's a little young from what I can tell but I'm nonetheless. Weiss unfortunately looks surprised at the announcement, where Ruby is obviously in shock as Yang goes over to hug her sister. "I'm so proud of you!" She tells her as she hugs her little sister happily. I chuckle at their displays before I notice that's pretty much every one of the teams has been named and accounted for. With nothing else, I get ready to go.

"Ethan Wright."

I freeze mid-step on the stairs at my name being called. Turning back, I look to see my name and profile on the screen with the professors looking right at me. I stare at them with a mix of shock and confusion before Ms. Goodwitch waves me over. "Come on young man."

That snaps me out of my confusion as I carefully make my way to him as team RWBY makes their way to the side. Ruby and Yang give me smiles of encouragement but I'm still confused by why he's calling me to the center stage. I stand in front of the professor's. "Mr. Wright. As you no doubt know, every student that has either passed, failed, or was unable to complete the exam. Because of the numbers, we are left with an odd number of students to attend Beacon Academy this year. Leaving just one student without a team to form."

"Me." I answer.

"Correct." Ms. Goodwitch says.

"As it stands, all students are required to be a part of a team in order to help learn the importance of teamwork and the fundamentals of what being a huntsman is all about. Because you are the only unassigned student left, you will be unable to be a part of the standard four-person teams we have set up." Professor Ozpin tells me in a sad tone at the news.

"I understand." I sadly say with my head inclined downwards. I can see out of my peripheral vision of the saddened looks all my friends have on their faces. We met only the briefest of times but it was nice nonetheless to meet them. I turn to head off the stage.

"However," His words stop me in my tracks. Turning back to him, the headmaster sports a smile on his face. "There is one other option you can take."

At my confused look, Ms. Goodwitch clarifies. "Joining a team as their fifth member." She answers, then proceeds to pull up something on the large scroll she's carrying. "This option will require you to work even harder than what a normal student would be tasked with, along with forming a partnership with every member of the team you are a part of. Should you wish to choose to attend Beacon Academy now, rather than wait for next year's entrance exam, that is your only option." She hands me the tablet and I take it carefully. Looking at the screen shows me a complete list of all the teams that were made this year. Team RWBY, JNPR, CRDL, and so on are all here, including an option at the end for me to decline entirely. "Choose your option, and should you choose to be a part of a team, once we have a confirmation from the teams leader of course, then we'll get started." She informs me.

I look at her stunned for a second at the option I now have. My attention shifts to the headmaster, who smiles, and my view glides over everyone else, from the different teams to the entire audience. Staring at the multitude of faces looking at me, I simply stare back for a few seconds before craning my attention back to the large screen in front of everyone. Slowly I look down at the tablet in front of me and stare at the different teams down the list. _'I… I still have a chance to attend.'_ I can't help but think as I look at the names. _'But… would they want me?'_ I think grimly before glancing at my friends. To my surprise still, they have smiles on their faces. At this point, it would seem there are only three options that I can really take now.

Team RWBY… Team JNPR… and Decline.

Taking one last look around, I tap my answer.

" **Team RWBY."** A loud automated voice can be heard by everyone at my decision. Claps of applause go off around me and I can't help but smile at the notion.

"Good choice." Professor Ozpin congratulates me with a smile.

"Now then, all we need now is the team leaders approval—"

"YEESS!"

"Ooof!" Suddenly I am tackled by a red blur in a hug and sent sprawling to the ground. I slide a foot and I can hear the audience chuckle at the action. A couple rose petals fall around us as I start to feel the air starting to leave me.

"Easy little sister." Thankfully Yang comes to my rescue and pulls her sister off me, allowing me to finally breathe.

"Uhhh, thanks." I thank her as I start to get up.

"Well, we have our answer." Professor Ozpin states as he looks at us. "Congratulations to team RWBY's newest member." He states and a round of applause goes off from everyone around. Looking past Ruby and Yang, team JNPR have looks of happiness at the development but the other two members of my new team aren't that really enthused about this. Weiss has a scowl on her face and Blake just looks at me warily. _'Sooner or later, I'm gonna have to explain about… me.'_ I think grimly on the fact that they did see my pets and I'm eventually going to have to explain. Now I'm confident at least they won't hate me since their not outright ignoring me. "Now that you're a part of their team, it would seem that a new name is in order." The headmaster tells us.

"What do you—"

"Oh! I know!" Ruby interrupts me and swipes the computer from my hands. I look at my hands for a second before looking at our leader as she furiously taps on it. Yang and I share the same look of confusion, with her shrugging at her sisters antics. "Done!" She happily announces. We look back at her but the happy smile she has is positioned to stare directly at the large screen in front of everyone.

As I stare at the new team name, my heart soars at the significance of the new team I am a part of.

Team RWBEY is born.

"Wow… 16 years old and I feel good about this." I can't help but say as I look at the screen.

"Wait, your 16?!" The loud voice of Ruby to my right shifts my attention from the screen. Looking to the others, they all have somewhat similar looks of surprise as well, except the headmaster who has a knowing smirk on face. _'Oh boy. I forgot. The standard age for students here is 17. This might be just a bit more complicated for me._

* * *

 **(Important question at the end)**

 **This was awesome to make. I don't know if I made the fighting and introducing Shadow and Raven too long or too short but I'm alright with it. This was an idea I had some time after season 3 ended and it was a concept I wanted to put into words. In the next chapter will there be an explanation as to HOW he managed to obtain Shadow and Raven in the first place so just wait for that if you want to know more about those two. Plus expect them to appear more often rather than only in combat.**

 **Anyway, I think I have some bad news for those of you reading this story. I say think because I'm not a hundred percent sure if I'm going to do it or not. Thing is with school starting up again I want to try to get out as many chapters as I can before and just when school starts. I won't be taking as many classes as I have in the past this semester but I'm still worried about what type of schoolwork I'll be dealing with, especially since I'll be taking a contemporary literature English class. As people have stated in my Steven Universe story, that I should ace English classes I take what with the way I write and how amazed plenty of people are with it. Thing is though, writing for pleasure on here, and writing for work on classes, the main difference being is that they of course give us parameters to meet and boundaries we have to work stay within. That being said, I'm hoping to learn something that may, even a little, help improve my writing or help me come up with ideas for other fanfics.**

 **I'm sorry, I got off topic. What I'm not sure of doing is theirs a chance I may go back to my Steven Universe story, 'A Tale of A Jade' and do a consistent run through of chapters for that story. By working on one story I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get more out at once for that one specifically and I just feel like focusing on it for now. Like I said I'm not a hundred percent sure if I'm going to do it but I'm going to at least tell everyone of you as a precaution. I know it seems unfair considering I already did a train of chapters before with my Steven Universe fic but it was my very first successful story and I absolutely do not want to lose any sort of tempo with the story. I hope you all understand, especially with this new development I gave you all with Ethan. However, as a means for you all to contribute and make use of the time between now and the next chapter, I have one very important question I must ask you all:**

 **Who should Ethan fall in love with?**

 **The idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while now and I honestly am stumped on who he should have a love interest in or if he should have one at all. So to break the conflict in my head, I want you all to give me ideas of just who would be the best candidate, or not, or not any at all and strictly want this to focus on the story I come up with, for Ethan to go with. I've got ideas for all but not sure which to go about so please everyone, choose which you prefer. Theirs a poll at the top of my profile for more accurate choices on the matter so please go there to make your choices legit.  
**

 **Thank you for your support, review, follow, fave, have a great day and as always, have fun reading.**


	6. 5 The Badge and The Burden

At first, I was a bit skeptic on the new team and living arrangements I would have to succumb myself to now that I'm not alone anymore. When they told us all teams were going to be put into one rooms each, I will admit I was a little cautious and worried about the whole set up since as I said to Ruby during the night before the initiation test that I primarily sleep alone. Now though the first night after we got back from the ceremony that announced everyone's teams and such, we went to our new rooms and settled in.

Well, not so much settle in, more so settle all our stuff in one corner so we don't lose them and crash out from the day's events. No one even asked about my ability yet but for now we were all so tired we just focused settling into bed rather than for the long haul.

It feels good to sleep in a warm bed after so long. I may be used to the cold and lying down on hard surfaces but being back on a soft bed indoors makes all the worried stuff about living with others a thing of the past.

*BREEEEEEEEEE!*

"Gah!

"Ah!"

Sort of.

I suddenly find myself face down on the hardwood floor after what vaguely sounds like a whistle go off in the room we all are in. A separate cry of surprise also went off and as I slowly look up, I see Weiss on the ground too and the reason for the whistle being blow quite apparent. "Good morning, team RWBEY!"

"What in the world is wrong with you?"

"What happened?" Weiss and I both ask our enigmatic leader from our positions on the ground.

"Now that you're awake, we can officially begin our first order of business." Ruby states, completely ignoring our questions.

"Excuse me?" Weiss asks as she gets up and brushes herself off.

"Come again?" I ask as well as I sit down on the bed and trying to stave off the headache from being woken up so suddenly… and loudly.

"Decorating!" From my side, Yang happily pronounces as she holds a variety of items in her arms; pillows, pamphlets, Blake's candle-holder; with Blake herself standing right next to her holding a suitcase. It's now I notice that Ruby, Blake and Yang are wearing what I believe to be the school uniform we are required to wear with Ruby still wearing her red hood. Pretty much Weiss and I are the only ones underdressed since we were woken up by a loud whistle. She's wearing a white and gray colored nightgown and has her hair let down instead of tied up, which suits her. I however am simply wearing a black t-shirt with gray shorts as my night attire.

"We still have to unpack." Blake tells us as she lifts her suitcase, which snaps open, spilling its contents all over the floor. "Aaaand clean." She embarrassingly states.

Weiss does not look enthusiastic at all about our plans, especially when Ruby knocks her back again to the floor with the blow of her whistle. "Ahhh. Ruby! We get it! We're awake." I grumble at hearing the infernal noise again.

"Aaaalright!" She happily yells. "Weiss, Blake, Yang, Ethan and their fearless leader Ruby have begun their first mission! Banzai!" She yells with a raised fist into the air.

"Banzai!" She repeats but this time Yang and Blake join her as well. They turn at an angle as we stare at them. Weiss and I share a look before sighing and getting changed into our uniforms.

As per what everyone else said, we get to work on putting all our stuff in and around the room. Yang places a poster of six guys in various poses named "THE ACHIEVE MEN" on her part of the room. Weiss hangs a painting of the Forever Fall forest to perfection and Blake is busy putting away her books on the shelves. One book though gets her pretty nervous and looks around warily before putting it away. Just before she does I manage to spot the name of it being "Ninjas of Love". _'Hm, should look into that later. Find out why she was so nervous.'_ Although with the name itself, I can probably hazard a guess. Ruby for her part uses the end of Crescent Rose to help hang and fix our curtain on the only window in our room, and then promptly but accidentally perfectly slashes it when she turns around, cutting a diagonal portion off of it. After managing to fix the sliced curtain, which the others were oddly surprised I could sew, I got to work in putting my stuff away. Nothing too big; I simply placed my bag against the wall connected to the door that carries all the tools needed for quick fixes on any of my weapons, and in this case the others too if need be. In the end, we take a step back and admire our handiwork. As we do, we come across a bit of a problem. Our beds are cramped and piled together in the center of the floor.

"This isn't going to work." Weiss says and I nod.

"You think?" I mutter.

"It is a bit cramped." Blake also comments on the oddity of our bed situation.

"Maybe we should ditch some of our stuff…" Yang proposes but I don't think anyone wants to get rid of their stuff.

"Or we could ditch the beds… and replace them with bunk beds!" Ruby announces happily and enthusiastically with raised arms.

"Umm, that sounds incredibly dangerous." Weiss isn't really onboard with the idea.

"And super-awesome!" Yang is happy with it.

"It does seem efficient." Blake sees the logic in the bed idea.

"Definitely free up some space in the room." So do I.

"Well, we should put it to a vote!"

"I think we just did."

With it obviously being that the only one who isn't onboard with the idea of bunk beds is Weiss, we get to work making them. Few seconds pass with the sounds of hammering and sawing evident in the room, we step back when we are done. "Objective: Complete!" Ruby announces and we see our… 'masterpiece'.

I say that with hesitance because of somehow we thought this would work. While Weiss's bed is simply on the ground next to her art and luggage, Blake's bed is next to her books, which are used to raise Yang's bed over it by placing the novels on the posts, and Ruby's is hanging from ropes on the ceiling with a blanket used as a tent over it.

"Wow… this is… nice." I hesitantly say as I see how we made our bunks beds to be. There is just another problem I kind of notice. "Wait, where's my bed?" I ask out loud. In all the frantic movement of making the beds, I didn't see where my bed went.

"Eh-hem." Ruby clears her throat and taps my shoulder. Turning I see her and everyone else looking towards the door, and up. Following their eye-sight, I look and see my question answered.

My bed is suspended over the door, ropes similar to Ruby's holding the thing up but straighter with two planks of wood under the frame holding it up. At the foot of the bed is a rope ladder so I can apparently climb up to go to sleep.

"…" It takes me a bit to process how this came to be. "Okay then." My head hurts.

"Allllright! Our second order of business iiiiiiiis...!" Ruby begins to announce but gets disappointed as she realizes what we need to do. With a book in her lap, she mutters "Classes… Now, we have a few classes together today. At 9, we've got to be—"

"What?! Did you say 9 o'clock?" Weiss loudly exclaims.

"Uuuum…" Ruby uneasily moans but before she can answer, Weiss says something that gets us all into high gear.

"It's 8:55, you dunce!" She says and bounds out the door. Looking at the clock, my heart beats just a little faster as I see she's right.

"To class!"

"Move it!" Ruby and I say as we run out the room, followed by the rest of our team and team JNPR falling out of their doorway and running with us. We run as fast as we can through the hallways till we cut through the courtyard towards where our first class is. I have no idea who exactly our first teacher is, or the class for that matter, so I'm just following the group and hope we make it in time. I'm pretty sure I saw Professor Ozpin watching us as we were booking it through the courtyard but he didn't stop us or scold us or anything like that so I just focused on us getting to whoever we need to get to quick.

* * *

"Monsters! Deeeemons… Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!" And our first class of the day involves a portly elderly man named Professor Peter Port who is going to be teaching us about the Grim and such.

Team RWBEY is situated in one of the lower levels of tables while JNPR is above us. While Yang, Blake, Weiss and I are paying attention and taking notes, Ruby has decided to take a nap… on the first day of class. Either way I have no idea if the professor was making a joke or not but while Ruby was asleep, it was enough to wake her from her sleep, along with an aptly times cricket-filled silence as a result.

"Uhhhh… And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy!" He continuous to teach in a boisterous happy attitude. "Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses…" I see him wink and then hear a groan from Yang. _'Huh, well that made her uncomfortable.'_ He continues regardless. "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world!"

"Ayyy-yep!" All eyes stare at the random student in the far back who talked and has a fist raised into the air. Not long under everyone's stares, he sits back down embarrassed.

"That is what you are training to become. But first: A story. A tale of a young, handsome man… Me! When I was a boy…" He starts going on about his life, his achievements and stuff such as that and to be honest it's starting to get hard to keep track of what he's saying. _'No wonder Ruby fell asleep.'_ My eyes drift open and closed heavily as I start to lean heavily on my arm, only able to catch some of what he's saying. "…Despite smelling of cabbages, my grandfather was a wise man. 'Peter', he told me… In the end, the Beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high, celebrated as a hero!" I snap out of it as he decides to bow for some reason but out of the corner of my eye I see Weiss angry. Clenched fist and a scowl as she stares at Ruby. Our leader in question doesn't look like she's paying attention to the stories either. "The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable!"

To my amazement, Ruby is able to balance an apple on a book with her pencil held only by her finger.

"A true Huntsman must be dependable!"

She falls asleep again.

"A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!"

"And now she's picking her nose, leaving Weiss quite angry at her leaders actions. Me, I don't really care but I don't think that matters right now as I scoot a little away from her just in case she blows up.

"So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?" The professor asks us.

"I do, sir!" Weiss suddenly stands up with her hand raised into the air. I get the foreboding feeling that she shouldn't have done that.

"Well, then, let's find out!" He says and it's now we see a steel cage for the first time in the room. _'When did that get here?!_ ' My mental question doesn't get answered as he turns to gesture at the cage that's now shaking and has a scary set of glowing red eyes with shadow in its confines. The feeling I have when Grimm are near isn't needed as we all know just what's in there. "Step forward, and face your opponent!" He declares. I was right on why Weiss shouldn't have done that.

Without missing a beat, she stands up and proceeds to go get changed. "Uh Weiss I don't think…" I begin to try to talk her out of it but she completely ignores me and even increases her speed. Once she goes out the door, I place my head on the table and cover it with my arms. "This isn't going to go well."

"Aaah don't worry Ethan!" Yang slaps my back in an effort to comfort me but it in fact stings. "I'm sure she'll come around." She says, most likely referring to the tension between us but that's not it.

"That's not what I'm worried about." I mutter.

* * *

A few minutes pass and Weiss is in her combat attire and ready to face her opponent. The cage hasn't stopped rattling and I wonder just what type of Grimm she'll be facing. It's too small to be a Beowulf that's for sure so unless the professor somehow managed to get his own version of Shadow, we'll see just what demonic creature we have here with us.

"Goooo, Weiss!" Yang sheers her on with a raised fist.

"Fight well!" I won't even ask where she got a flag that says RWBEY.

"Good luck!" I wish her luck in the fight but a glare from the corner of her eye makes me shrink. _'I really got to patch things up with her.'_

"Yeah, represent teeeeam RWBY!" Our leader loudly proclaims happily but it has the opposite effect on the fighter.

"Ruby! I'm trying to focus!" Weiss angrily retorts before going back to her stance.

"Oh, um… sorry…" Ruby apologizes sheepishly for the apparent interruption but I just think she's singling her out.

"Allllright!" Professor Port says from next to the cage, pulling out his blunderbuss, axe combo weapon I think and holds it up. "Let the match… begin!" He announces and swings his weapon down, breaking the lock and making the cage door drop, revealing the Boarbatusk inside, which immediately charges at Weiss. She uses her rapier Myrtenaster to deflect its attack and roll to the side, readying herself for its next move. The Grimm doesn't charge again and instead stands a distance away from its enemy, allowing it study her.

"Ha-ha! Wasn't expecting that, were you?" The Professor says.

"Hang in there, Weiss!" Ruby encourages her again but doesn't acknowledge her.

Instead, Weiss now proceeds to speed towards the oncoming Boarbatusk, sticking her blade straight at its skull until they meet and Myrtenaster is trapped in the beast's tusks. The Grimm shakes all around to dislodge her, with Weiss still hanging on to the hilt, making her get tossed around as she struggles to get her rapier back.

"Bold, new approach. I like it!"

"Come on, Weiss, show it who's boss!"

Weiss doesn't take too kindly to the encouragement again and glares at Ruby, only for the Boarbatusk to turn its head and rip the sword from her grip. Her rapier lands far away from its master, who is knocked back by the creature's tusks. My breath hitches as I watch the weapon slide on the ground well out of her reach.

"Oh-ho! Now what will you do without your weapon?" The professor asks but no one answers as she focuses on her opponent.

Weiss looks up just in time to see the Boarbatusk to charge again but she rolls out of the way just in time to avoid getting trampled and make it crash into a desk instead. She rushes at her sword and slides to get it back in her hand in time.

"Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath—"

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss snaps at Ruby, interrupting her. Glancing at Ruby I see her look hurt from her partners outburst but the Grimm doesn't take note or care. The Boarbatusk leaps into the air and rolls into a ball, spinning rapidly in the air and landing on the ground, consistently gaining speed until it launches itself at Weiss to try to end her. I wring my hands together in tense anticipation as it comes closer and closer, but Weiss activates one of her glyphs and blocks the roll, leaping up into the now-black snowflake symbol and turning it blue again. Next she takes the opportunity to drive her blade into the Boarbatusk's stomach. It squeals for a second before it falls silent dead while Weiss gasps in relief at ending it. My hands finally relax and I steadily breathe again.

"Bravo! Bra-vo!" Professor Port congratulates her on her victory. "It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training! I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and… stay vigilant! Class dismissed!" The professor announces and everyone is not doubt ready to get moving. None more so that Weiss who glares and walks out of the room without acknowledging the rest of her team.

"Sheesh, what's with her?" Jaune asks as he watches her go. The rest of us look at each other with similar questions on our minds before we start going after her.

"C'mon. Let's go see what's eating her." I propose and we go to the door.

"Mr. Wright!" The loud voice of our professor booms causing us to stop, especially me. "A word please."

I look at him for a second before looking at the others. "Go." I indicate with a nod to my head out the door. "I'll catch up." They nod and go while I walk back to the professor back in front of the room. "Uhh yes, sir? Is everything alright?" I ask tensely. It's only the first day of class and I don't want to be in trouble already.

"Capital!" He loudly pronounces with an arm pump to the side before back to a somewhat calm demeanor. "I just wanted to give you your extra work as per your agreement for being here." He explains.

The conditions for me to be here at the academy with an odd numbered team clicks into my mind. _'Oh, right.'_ "Oh yeah. I remember now. What do you got for me?"

"Here." He pulls out a somewhat thick book from off his desk and holds it. "This is a collection of biography on all the Grimm we currently know about in the world and every few weeks, I will be giving you a quiz on specific chapters pertaining to some of these dastardly beasts! I expect you to study and pass with flying colors." He hands it to me.

"Oh cool. Thank you sir. I'm sure this'll come in- Oof!"

*Slam*

As it stands, as I go to take the book, it's a lot heavier than I thought it was going to be because I face plant on to the floor on top of the book.

"Very good then!" He says, completely ignoring the fact that I hit the floor and am struggling to lift the cursed thing. "Do please come and see me should you ever have any questions! And if you don't mind me asking, I would very much like to see that ability you have of—"

"Shhh!" I forgo the book and jump up to shush the man.

He blinks at me for a second before sporting his happy demeanor again. "Oh come now Ethan! I mean it's not every day you meet someone who can control a Gri—"

"Shhh! Shhh! Ap ap ap ap! Shhhhhh!" I shush him repeatedly and glance back at the door to see the last student walk out. I sigh and wring my hand through my hair before looking at him. He has a curious face as to why I was reluctant to talk about it. "Listen sir, it's not you or anything it's just… I don't want to go mentioning to everyone that I have this… ability. I've been… burned in the past for having it. Some people weren't very… good to me and I just don't want to mess anything up right now and—" Professor Port puts a hand on my shoulder to shut me up from my rant.

"It's okay my boy. I don't wish to pry or make you uncomfortable. You can tell me when or if you feel like it. Just know, I will be intrigued, but I will not judge." He states firmly. His words make me smile and I'm a bit more at ease now.

"Thank you. Eventually I'll show Shadow and Raven… but first I'd like to show and clear things up with my teammates first and foremost."

"That sounds like a good idea my boy!" He pats my shoulder and I go to pick up the book but something else pops into my head.

"Wait, how did you find out about them? I don't remember you being there when I summoned them." I ask. So far only teams JNPR and RWBY at the time, along with my potential teammates at the time before they had to go to the hospital, saw Shadow and Raven but not the teachers.

"Well we did monitor the forest during the initiation remember?" He reminds me.

"Oh yes." I mutter uncomfortably. Of course at the time I wasn't focusing on the secrecy of my ability until after I was alone what with the Grimm surrounding me and such. Still sucks though. "So how many…?"

"Well if I recall," He thinks with a hand to his chin, "I believe about all the instructors saw what happened." I gulp at the news. "You still did spectacularly in the fight if I must say. You needn't worry about any negative actions to come from any of the instructors."

"Hehe, thank you. Well, in any case I guess I should go. Thanks again sir." I thank him before grabbing the book and with some effort I hoist it up and begin my trek up the stairs. "Oh! Oh man! I hate this." I mutter to myself as I walk.

"Farewell! I wish the rest of your day to be much uplifting!"

As I hobble out the door, I remember how Weiss was acting and how angry she was. _'Yeah somehow I don't think so.'_

* * *

"Eh-hem."

"Huh? Oh! Weiss! I-I was studying, and then I fell asleep! I'm sorry..." Ruby is stopped of her frantic apology by Weiss who shushes her. She puts a finger to her own mouth to indicate the need for quiet, as gestured to their three sleeping teammates.

"How do you take your coffee?" She asks her leader.

"I… I don't…"

"Answer the question!" She demands irritated.

"Uhh, cream and five sugars!" Ruby replies quickly.

Weiss sighs, "Don't move." She ducks under to her own bed and comes up a moment later with a fresh cup, offering it to Ruby. "Here."

"Um… Thanks, Weiss."

Weiss smiles at the thanks but it turns to an apologetic look as she remembers her actions earlier in the day. "Ruby, I think you have what it takes to be a good leader." That gets a smile on the leaders face. "Just know that I am going to be the best teammate you'll ever have!" They both share a smile at the declaration. "Good luck studying!" And with that, Weiss ducks under but comes right back up. "That's wrong, by the way." She informs Ruby of an answer on her paper. She ducks under again. "Hey, Ruby?"

"Uh-huh?" She looks at the door where her partner now is.

Weiss's hand lingers on the door knob inside the door way before speaking. "I always wanted bunk beds as a kid." She admits and closes the door.

Ruby, grinning at the progress with her friend, goes back to her notes.

* * *

I smile out of the corner of my mouth as I eye the display, after seeing how angry Weiss was and hurt Ruby was, it's a relief to see them alright with each other now and made up. Things would be very bad and tense at every turn if they were at odds with each other.

After I made my way back to our room to drop off the book, the rest of the day progressed relatively easy until it came to night. Ruby was saddened most of the time and Weiss was angry but now, after some words from some of our instructors no doubt, I can fully close my eyes and let myself drift into a comfortable sleep with no worries.

* * *

"… _The end comes soon…"_

"Huh?"

* * *

*BRREEEEEE*

"Ah!" My sleep was… alright. Cryptic nightmares as usual for me but it would seem that my waking state is interrupted… again. "Oof!" And painful. I suddenly find myself face down on the hard floor with pain all over my body. "Ooowwwwww." I look up from my spot on the ground. "Ruby! We don't have classes this early!" I angrily state after getting woken up so harshly… from such a high height. "I'm installing a guard rail up there." I grumble as I achingly get to my feet.

"Sorry Ethan. I thought now would be a good time for you to explain to us something."

"Explain what?" I mumble as I pop my back with a few twists.

"How you can control Grimm?"

I freeze mid twist to the right at Blakes blunt question. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah! Like what exactly did you do back at initiation to make those two fight with you?" Yang asks. I turn to see them with expectant looks on their faces.

"We would have asked you yesterday… buuuuuuut…" Ruby moans uneasily as she glances over at Weiss. The memory of her little spat and disagreement with our leader is still fresh, resulting in her looking away a little.

"Regardless, we have time before classes and its about time that as a team, you explain to us how you have two pet Grimm under your control." She demands. I stare at her for a bit until I glance over and see the others with similar expressions of want but of course not as harsh. _'I knew I was expecting this. But I guess I got comfortable when they didn't ask me yesterday.'_ Closing my eyes and shaking my head a little, I sigh.

"Mmm, alright. It's about time I guess." I mutter and go to get changed out of my sleep clothes. Once I'm out, I sit down on Blake's bed. "Might as well go get Jaune and his team in here too. They saw and I don't feel like telling it twice or you all giving your own version of it to them."

"I'll get them!" Ruby volunteers and she goes to open the door.

"Woah!"

*Thud*

We stare at the mess of bodies that fell from her opening the door. Team JNPR lies in a heap from falling in and there are several groans before as one, they all look up at us staring at them. "Eh-hehehe… whoops." Jaune nervously says.

I shake my head and wave for everyone to come in. "Come on. Gather 'round children and I'll tell you."

"Aren't we older than you?"

"Do you wanna hear the story or not?!" I retort annoyed at Weiss's observation. No further arguments or comments are made as everyone gets seated around me. While I sit at the foot of Blake's bed, she sits at the head, Jaune, Weiss and Ren sit on her bed in that order, Ruby lays on her bed, Pyrrha stands next to the window, and Nora and Yang lean over the side on her bed, looking at me upside down. Once I see I have everyone's attention, I speak.

"Wait!" Or I would if Nora didn't interrupt me. I look at her to see she has a smile on her face. "Can you bring them out here?! I wanna see them up close when you explain everything." She explains with a giddy look. I stare at her for a second before I glance at the others to see them having somewhat subtle looks as well of want. I roll my eyes and stand up.

"Alright I guess." I look at the Spartan near the window. "Pyrrha, window please." I ask of her. She turns to open the window, albeit a little confused but does it regardless. Once it's open, I bring up my right hand and concentrate. Clenching my hand into a fist, a swirl of thin black mist curls around my hand for a second before it disappears. Bringing it back to my side, I wait. They look at me confused and look around for an indication of my pets but find none… at least at first.

Flapping sounds can be heard and all eyes turn to the window to see my eagle Grimm flap in. "Oh!" Pyrrha takes an instinctive step back as she lands on the window sill and sits there. No outward aggressions appear from Raven as she curiously tilts her head to the side and examines all the faces around the room.

"Whoooooaa." Ruby from her perch leans over and stares at the creature with wide eyes. Raven for her part stares back and tilts her head in curiosity.

"That… is actually pretty cool." Jaune says as he stares at Raven too.

"Uhhh Jaune?" Ren murmurs, getting his leaders attention. Once he looks at his squadmate past Weiss, Ren points behind Jaune. The blonde haired leader turns around to see two red eyes staring back at him.

"AH! Aha!" He yelps in surprise and envelops the first thing next to him.

"… Get… off." Weiss seething says, her anger slowly building at suddenly being pulled into a hug by him. Noticing what he's doing, he lets her go but stays close and away from the wolf Grimm perched on the foot of the bed next to him.

"Everyone, I'd like you all to meet Raven," I wave to the window, "And Shadow." I finish saying towards the wolf on the end of Weiss's bed. Everyone shifts views between the two of them, intrigued and fascinated between the two unique creatures of Grimm of that are just inches away from all of them without a hint of ill intent from them. Some though, aren't as intrigued.

"Uhhhh, nice… doggie?" I roll my eyes at Jaunes attempt to be nice as he hesitantly extends a shaking hand to Shadow next to him.

"Jaune, its fine. They pick up on my knowledge and what I know. You're not my enemy, so neither is he. Go ahead." I explain. Glancing to me, his hand shakes a little less but slowly comes close to Shadow's head. He looks curiously at the appendage before leaning forward into the touch. Jaune sucks in a sharp breath at the contact but calms down when it isn't bitten off so quickly. A smile appears on his face as he gets into the petting and sees the content look Shadow gives.

"Wow. This is so cool." I smile at his compliment.

"DOOOGGIIIEEE!" Two voices squeal out in utter happiness.

"Wha- Oof!" Jaune is suddenly thrown off the bed and Shadow disappears.

"Aw he's so cute!"

"Good doggie!" Coos some voices from above. We look up to see Ruby and Nora fawning over the mutt on her bed.

' _Cute? Wait, how did…?'_ I think very confused at the idea of Shadow being cute and how fast they moved. Ruby I understand but Nora… huh. "Cute? He's a merciless killing machine that could chop your head off with his tail." I can't help but drone out as I stare at them. I feel all eyes on me at the comment as I notice Ruby pulling away just a little.

"Cool doggie." Nora mutters without letting go of him. Thankfully shadow isn't angry or anything, he just sits with I think a look of confusion on his face. I mean outside of combat, this has been the most they've been let out or interacted for that matter with anyone so I'm not surprised their confused about this.

"Well, that's one way to get to know him." Yang mutters from above. I shake my head at Nora's so… ecstatic attitude towards him. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Blake who looks very uncomfortable.

"Blake you okay?" I ask her.

"Huh?! Oh yeah. I'm okay just… not everyday you see Grimm up close like this without them trying to kill you." She nervously says to me. I don't really believe what she claims since everyone else is so cool about it but I guess its just her.

Also I'm pretty sure I saw her bow move but I can't be certain. Shrugging, I glance to Pyrrha. "Pyrrha." She perks up having been called. "Hold your arm out to Raven. Like so." I hold out my left arm with it bent. She looks at the Grimm for a second before slowly doing what she's told. Raven examines Pyrrha for a bit and when she's satisfied, she flares her wings and bounces over to the outstretched limb. The Spartan flinches at the Grimm coming to her but composes herself as Raven lands on her arm calmly and remains perched there.

"Oh. Oh wow. This is… amazing." Pyrrha comments as she brings a hand up to run her hand through Raven's feathers. The Grimm purs at the petting and curls a little into her affection.

"Awesome." Yang comments as she reaches over pets Raven on the head too. This whole time I've kept a reserved sense of dread at the idea of the others attacking first and asking questions later but I'm incredibly relieved to see them all trust me so on the fact Raven and Shadow aren't going to attack. Especially since they are starting to warm up to them so well. "Soooooo… how exactly is this happening?" Yang asks while lying on her back and picking at Raven's beak, who actually doesn't seem all that angry about it. "Like, what did you do to get them to obey you like this and summon them? Is it your semblance?"

I breathe in deeply at the questions. _'I knew I was going to explain. Was still worried about it though.'_ I think. Leaning forward, I give two sharp short whistles. Raven and Shadow turn and come to me. Raven lifts off of Pyrrah and places herself on the bed next to me while Shadow jumps down from above and sits next to my feet. Patting the both of them, I let out a breath of air and prepare myself to explain.

"Alright, I guess it's time I explain." I say and lay myself against the bedpost, albeit careful as to not push the books holding up the one above. "Well, I guess I'll make it clear: They are not my semblance." The others look at each other confused at the answer. It's true while a lot of different people have a variety of different semblance abilities that can range to all manner of actions that can give them an edge over both the Grimm and criminals they may face. The idea of this being my semblance was an option for them to think, but I just confirmed its not.

"Then… how?" Ren asks. Glancing at the two next to me, I sigh.

"In order to make some sense I guess I have to tell you about my family." My hands clench at the memories but I reel it in as Shadow growls. "My family sees the Grimm in a very different light than anyone else. They almost… revere the Grimm in a sense."

"Revere?! They worship them?!" Blake asks loudly, surprised and a little angry. I don't' blame her.

"Not totems, statues, or prayers way. Nothing like that. Their way of trying to establish a type of relationship with the Grimm has come from a long line of tries and efforts. These two…" I gesture to my Grimm, "Are the fruits of that effort."

"Whoooooa." Ruby moans in awe.

"But how are you able to have them in the first place?" Pyrrha asks.

"My family have developed a sort of contract with the Grimm. By signing it, in your own blood," They flinch at that, "And through some special prayer method that I can't remember, you are given the chance to have your own form of pet Grimm that will do your bidding, and fight for you till your life ends." I explain.

"What's the catch?" Weiss asks suspiciously. "There's no way it's that simple."

I smile at her caution. "Your right. There is a catch. I'm bonded to these two," I rub both of them, "Right down to the soul."

"Your soul?!" Weiss blurts out in surprise, mixed in with the same looks from everyone else. I nod.

"But why?! I mean they're pretty cool, awesome and I want one too, but why?!" Nora asks loudly.

I close my eyes, lean back and chuckle darkly. "Like I had a choice." I mutter, loud enough for them to hear.

"Uh, what?"

I get up slightly angry. "My parents were fanatics about them. When I was seven they made me do the contract without my consent and had me get these two on my own." I growl out in anger. My Grimm start to get fidgety as well from the raw emotions I am giving off but I bring it down to a somewhat manageable level. Before they ask how, I speak, "In order to get your own Grimm, you need two things to make it work after establishing your contract. One: You need a regular animal of your own choosing and kill it. Two: A Grimm that best suits the animal of your choosing." I let the information sink in as the stare at them, trying to piece together just who and what animals I used. It's Weiss and Pyrrha that get it first.

"So, a wolf… and a Beowolf?" I nod at the heiress.

"An eagle… and a Nevermore?!" She says the last part in complete surprise.

"No way." Yang moans in awe.

"Yeah, although I was lucky. It was a small one." I rub the scar on my eye. "Was still one of the deadliest creatures I ever faced." Raven bristles at the memory of her Grimm half causing the permanent scar on me but I rub her feathers in comfort. "After defeating my chosen Grimm, the essence they dissolve into when we destroy absorbs into me, and all that's left is to push it into something else soon."

"Or else?" Ren asks, no doubt on the alternative on what would happen if I didn't bind the Grimm essence into the chosen animal.

"It tears you apart… slowly." Some of the others pale at the description or the idea of what it might look like.

"Still though," Ruby jumps down and crouches next to Shadow. "It seems it worked out for these two huh?" She asks as she pets him. I smile and join in.

"Yeah. Funny thing is, it sounds simple but it gets exhausting very quickly. Heck, I was only supposed to have only one. Imagine my parents surprise when I came back with both of these two."

"You mean you can't have as many as you want?" Blake asks and I nod.

"Nope. Each one that you bind with will lessen you overall. Most of the people in my family's past have only been able to bind one. Others who've tried for more, perished. Because of my ability to have not one but two Grimm under my command, you'd think they would have appreciated me more… but they showed it in a very messed up way." I take a second to breathe in and out before leaning against the post. "They decided that if I could do this, there's no limit to what I could do everywhere else." I look out the window with a far off look. "And so began the next part of my life filled with nothing but training, fighting, learning… surviving." Before the others can ask anymore, I stop them. "And I think… that's all I can say for now. Hope you all understand." This story telling has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me and right now I don't think I can go anymore.

"We understand." Pyrrha says with a slight bow to me, one in which I am grateful for.

"You've more than explained your situation. I don't think it necessary for us to pry anymore." Ren proposes and gets nods from everyone else.

"Yeah." Jaune says but as he looks at the clock, he gets up. "Our classes should be starting in an hour. Let's go get some breakfast before they're completely out." He suggests and walks to the door.

"Oh yeah!" Nora happily agrees and jumps down before following her leader. "I'm hankering for some pancakes right now! With lots of syrup!"

"Nora, please don't steal every syrup bottle." Ren drones on as he follows after her, which I get the feeling he's had to say that before. Pyrrha follows and waves goodbye to us as they leave the door.

"Hold on guys! We'll come too! Let's go team!" Ruby happily announces and goes with Yang jumping down, Blake giving Shadow a wide berth for some reason, and Weiss following. It's when my team gets to the door that they notice that I'm not there with them. "Uhhh, Ethan? You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just… the reminiscing sort of didn't put me in the mood for eating right now." I say from my seated position, staring out the window as I do. "If it's alright with you, I think I'd rather stew in my own thoughts for a bit."

"Uhhh." Ruby moans unsured until she looks to Yang and Blake, who both shrug at my suggestion. "Alright then. Just don't forget about class later."

"I won't."

"C'mon girls." Yang leads them out and towards the cafeteria. I don't see them leave, only focusing outside as I basically reform my thoughts after bringing them back up for so long.

Thing is though, I didn't hear the door close.

"Ethan…" I turn to see Weiss still at the door, looking down with what amounts to be a guilty look. "I wanna say… I'm sorry. I treated you unfairly when we first met and I want to formally apologize. You didn't deserve—"

"Weiss." I interrupt her apology, giving her a firm look as she looks up at me. "You don't have to apologize to me because you feel sorry for me. I've accepted what my life has been like to this point and I won't change a thing if I could."

She looks surprised. "You don't? But why?"

My eyes stay locked with hers for a bit before I glance around the room, examining all the items that consist of my team living here. _'My team.'_ I smile and look at her. "Because I'm here. With good people, a good team, and good friends. If dealing with all that in the past lead me to here… why would I change it?"

She stares at me with an unreadable expression for a bit until she too smiles and relaxes. "That's good. Still, my apology was overdue and I want to make it clear that I am sorry for being a jerk to you."

I stand up and walk in front of her before extending my hand. "Apology accepted Weiss."

We shake hands firmly to formally cement it. "Thank you." She takes a step back out the door. "You sure you don't want to come?"

"I'm sure." I say with a nod.

"Alright then… bye." She gives me a wave and heads out the door.

"See you later." Once she leaves and closes the door, I find myself staring at where she departed for a bit longer than I should have. It's only when something nudges my leg do I snap out of it. Looking down I see its Shadow next to me with Raven as well. I glance at the door once again before crouching and affectionately petting the two. "I think I AM going to like it here."

Raven purs while Shadow bark happily.

 **I am so sorry everyone. This too way longer than I had originally planned and I would like to apologize in getting this out. Several college assignments, including a research essay that requires me to interview someone, and the recent release of Shadow of War just ate up my time on working on this and I'm very sorry for that.**

 **For my essay, I've got someone so I'm not stressing out over interviewing someone anymore so that's an immense relief off my mind on so many levels.**

 **For Shadow of War, holy crap people. The game is MASSIVE with the amount of captains, warchiefs, and overlords you can fight. The combat is something else, the enemy, grunts also, are so all over the place I find myself struggling at some points against waves of enemy's, clusters of them and so forth. My time is definitely going to be eaten by that game. So much to do and I have no idea if I'm at the halfway mark of the game.**

 **Now onto some guest reviews:**

 **Well this would be where I would answer guest review questions since I can't send a PM to them personally. Most of the guest reviews of course were votes on who Ethan's love interest was to be but that's not to detract those in the future who don't have accounts from reviewing. If you're a guest and you review, sometimes expect a response here in the author notes, depending on what's said of course.**

 **That being said, I'm also not going to sugar coat it people.**

 **Weiss won… but only barely. Like super barely. The other two who gave her a run for her money, one I wasn't surprised in the least, and the other I was very very surprised at. Ruby of course was a popular choice amongst reviewers, with barely any votes in the poll. To my utter surprise, it was Cinder Fall who was also a possible candidate with how many votes she got in the poll. If I had only used the polls vote results as the deciding factor, then that's who Ethan would be getting in bed with.**

… **Wow that's an image I never I thought I'd picture for my character. In any case, since guests couldn't vote in the polls and only people with accounts could, I went with all forms and it was a combination of the poll, reviews, and PM's that brought Weiss out on top. Stop it brain.**

 **Alright well, sorry for those of you expecting the others and I hope you continue to read regardless of the result.**

 **There's another question though that I'd like to ask you all, that I'm asking everyone on all my stories, but what would you all say to me making a Code Lyoko story? I binged watched the whole series a few weeks ago and after finally completing it after all these years, it's such a relief and nostalgia to see it again. Ideas for a story are constantly stewing in my head going back and forth and giddy as hell to make it. I know I only uploaded a Star Wars: The Clone Wars story some weeks ago but that was out of the blue and this I want to ask everyone. I hope the idea receives positive reception.**

 **Sorry again for the late upload and I'll try not to take so long in the next one. If you want, fave, follow, review, have a great day and as always, have fun reading.**


	7. 6 A Propostition

Relief. After I finished with my thoughts, I realized it was an immense relief off my mind after I told and showed everyone my ability. The fact that they were accepting, and even fascinated by it was awesome.

As usual with Ruby and Yang, they were pretty cool with the whole thing and have taken to Shadow quite well. They even mentioned they have their own pet dog they grew up with and still lives with their dad back at their home. That's one reason probably that they enjoyed Shadow so much. Blake meanwhile seems to stay far away from and instead focus her attention on the eagle Grimm.

Speaking of both Grimm, they're taking the attention from everyone quite well. Before I used to always summon them only when I was fighting Grimm and in trouble, or when I was alone and needed some company. Now that they and I are socializing, they were a bit confused at the attention but are warming up to our team. Definitely something that needs to happen if I am to be everyone's partner. Speaking of being a partner…

"Now you want to be careful in handling any form of Dust compound. Every type of Dust has different triggers in order to make them activate so it's a good idea to know what goes to what." After Weiss apologized, it was a good idea that in order to further smoothen things out between us she's decided to school me properly in the application of Dust. Since then, she's given me pointers when she can on Dust and it's been a great help. Being alone all the time and strapped for lien, I only needed to buy the bare essentials and parts needed for m weapon but that's about it. No improving and furthering my options for combat with the application of Dust. Now that I'm getting a lot of info on the substance and the possibilities it can be used for, I can see why the heiress takes to having it used as a component for her weapon.

"Understood." I say to her. Good thing about learning about all this information about Dust is that it should help me out in any assignments pertaining to it, especially Professor Peach's class. That one is kind of centered on Dust so should help. "Thanks again for your help Weiss." I thank her as I finish sorting my vials of Dust that she gave me and jotting down notes on what she's told me. "I really appreciate the help."

"My pleasure Ethan. If we are to be partners, it wouldn't be wise for you to not have any idea on how to properly use Dust. This should benefit us both."

"Me more so, but yeah, I get what you're saying." I nod at her explanation and finish writing my notes down. My studies over the different classes have been a bit of a challenge, what with the extra work I have to put down on top of the regular work given to everyone, but by no means am I expectant to fail. After I showed the others my ability, I went ahead and showed Professor Port since he was the one to first ask about them and he was quite fascinated by them. Definitely not every day you could examine a full fledged Grimm creature up close and was he didn't waste the opportunity. Although I did have to make them go when he got a little too pokey and proddy on them. Either way it was nice.

I finish up the notes and start putting my stuff. Just in the event that some of the Dust may combust for whatever reason, Weiss opted to talk and explain things in the large workshop area the school where students could go to work on all their equipment, test new gear, try some new abilities and so on. A set of tables near the door we're at were what we used to study and so she could show just how each Dust element performs. "And I think that should just about wrap up what I can tell you today." She tells me we're done.

"Alright." I agree and start packing away both my notes and the Dust samples. Really after the rocky start we had at the beginning, it's nice to see we are friends now. If she could get over the start she had with Ruby, then it was easier to befriend me and I'm grateful. "Okay, that's everything." I say once the packing's done. "So, what's next?" I ask.

She goes to say something, but then stops as a stumped look graces her face. "You know, I'm not sure. Today's a free day for me. You?"

"Same. The others?"

"Classes right now, or doing something else." She explains. With that bit of information, we both realize that we now have nothing else to do. The idea of her teaching me more on Dust was the only thing we thought to do but now that we've got that out of the way, we haven't really thought of doing anything else. "What now?" She asks as she holds her head up with her arm.

I take a second to think. _'Well, we don't really have any assignments to do right now, or we already finished them. My extra work is done too so I got nothing to do on that matter. Hmm… Maybe we can just talk?'_ "Maybe we can just chill here and talk?" I propose.

"Here? In the workshop?"

"…" We look around to see no one's around and it's pretty dead quiet. I swear I even hear a cricket. "No one here."

"… True. Alright then." She puts her arm down and sits straight as do I.

"…"

"…"

' _Wow this is awkward.'_ It takes us a second to realize that we have no idea what to talk about. "Soooo, what do friends talk about?" She asks.

"Just, stuff I guess." I say. As it stands, neither of us are really good at the social or friendly small talk. Me being away from people my current age at the time and her being the heiress to the Schnee family. _'Oh, that might work.'_ "Well, how about you tell me how it is being an heiress?"

"Wait, really?" She asks surprised. I bring my hands up in a disarming manner.

"I-if that's alright with you! I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything." I quickly say.

"No nooo. It's fine I just… besides my family and the people that worked for us I've never really had anyone want to talk about this kind of stuff."

"Well, I'm here now. If you wanna talk, I'm all ears." I give her a comforting smile. From the surprise and somewhat down demeanor she has, she probably didn't have a lot of friends to talk to. _'Especially being the daughter of a very prestigious and wealthy family.'_

"Okay," She begins. "Being the heiress to the Schnee family has been… lucrative you could say. All my life I've been able to get and be given just about anything I ever wanted my entire life. I had the best of everything I wanted, had the best tutors when I was homeschooled and the best trainers when I began taking after my sister in fighting."

"Sister?"

"My older sister Winter joined the Atlesian military when she was younger, shifting her right to inherit the title of heiress to me. If she hadn't joined the military, then it would be her that carries the title of heiress rather than… me." She explains. I nod along with her as she talks.

"And instead of staying home, given everything you pretty much ever wanted, you chose instead to train and come to a combat school to become a Huntress?" I ask confused.

"Is that a problem?" She asks with a suspicious look. I bring my hands up in defense.

"Not really. It's just not many people would choose the career you chose… Why did you?" I ask leaning forward. This highly important person in front of me that was practically waited on hand and foot her whole life decided to take up arms and become a deadly fighting warrior.

She looks off to the side like she's remembering or reminiscing about something. "I'm a Schnee." She stands up and holds her rapier in hand, Myrtenaster if I recall the weapons name correctly. "My family has a sense of honor and duty that comes from the name alone. After hearing about my sister joining up with the military, but most of all finding out I had the ability to fight… I felt like it was something I had to do in order to preserve my family's legacy." She holds her sword firm in hand before going into a combat ready stance. "I didn't want to sit around my whole life. Not when I could do something." She says with conviction and without much effort she stabs forward before pulling back in a relaxed stance and sheathing her weapon. She turns to me with a smile. "It's true, while others would be happy to be where I am and live a comfortable life with a cushy job back in Atlas, I'm not like most others." She states. As she stands there, having given me an explanation and I recall how she moved so fluidly with her sword, I give a small smile at what I saw. I retain a neutral look as an idea pops into my head and I stand up.

"Weiss?" I ask standing in front of her. She tilts her head slightly as an indication for me to continue, "Can I see your weapon for a bit?" I ask with hope.

She looks confused for a second at the request but concedes. "Oh, uh, okay sure." She pulls it off her side and holds the weapon flat along the blade in her palms towards me. "Just be careful."

"I will. Thank you." I nod my head to her in thanks before taking it in my hands and gripping the handle. I didn't want to say 'I know.' No doubt that would come off as crass and maybe a hint of smugness. Of course I know how to be careful with weapons, but this isn't my weapon. This isn't the weapon I've selected as my own when I was growing up, but maybe I can learn to. Holding the weapon by the handle with one hand, I properly gauge the weight of it now that it's in my hands. "It's lighter than I thought." I comment.

"In order for me to get the speed and maneuverability I'm fluent with, I needed a weapon that was light enough so I wouldn't be held down by the weight, but also strong enough so I wouldn't compromise on power."

"Nice." I reply. Next what I do is recall the moves that she would use when handling this weapon. The way she held it, how she attacked, her stance, I try to mimic her. I take a step back and thrust to the side, making sure my grip is firm so I don't let it slip. I pull back and slash a few times, making sure my feet are placed in the right way from what I've seen. I twist around and slash through the open air a few times before finishing with my left arm stretched out in front of me and my right hand carrying the sword held up close to the side of my head. I stand there for a few seconds before I thrust forward. I remain in the thrust position for a bit before I pull back, straighten up along the sword aimed upwards in front of me, held close.

"Not bad, but could use some work." I smile at the comment I hear to my side from the owner. I look to her to see her staring at me with a hand cupping her chin and giving me an examining look. "You picked up my form nicely but you would need a long way to go before you could even master a weapon like that." She explains with a grin and hands pressed to her hips.

I go back to looking at the weapon, the thought from earlier coming back as to why I asked for the weapon in the first place. "Maybe… you can teach me?" I ask her finally.

A look of surprise and shock shifts from the grin from before. "Wait, really? But why? You already have your own weapons." She states but is still confused as to why I asked.

"One of my conditions for being the fifth member of your team is I have to be the partner for everyone in said team. I can think of no better opportunity than learning how to fight like you. Just as a precaution should something happen to either of our weapons or… hopefully not, to us." I add the last part with a pang of sadness. I don't like the idea of something happening to either of us or the rest of our team, but if me learning about my teammates weapons and how they fight can help out in the future, even a little bit, that's something I'm willing to do. "If you'll let me."

She stares at me for a few seconds and gets a thoughtful look on her face. She looks to the side and for a moment I think she's going to decline. "First off, you have to straighten your arms a bit more." She takes up a teachers pose and comes up to me. I resume my stance and do what she says. "Keep yourself aware of your stance and your surroundings. Knowing where you can move will allow you to have a better idea of how to move about the battlefield." She instructs me.

"Got it." I say and adapt a more combat ready stance with my left hand to my side, legs spread and my armed right hand ready to fight in front of me.

"No no nooo. Here." She comes up to me and kicks my feet lightly. "Move your feet a little more," I do that. "Straighten yourself up." She pushes against a spot on my back so I'm not slouching a little. "Move your arm out a little more." She comes around to my left and places her left hand on my right, moving my hand to the proper position. "There." I smile at the advice she's giving to me and turn to her.

The fact we both look at each other the same time and are inches from each other makes us freeze. In order to push my hand to the right spot, she's pressed up pretty close to me. Because we are so close I find out the height difference between us. I am just under half a head taller than her so I have to look slightly down. "Hey." I say after the intense silence we had.

"H-Hi." She hesitantly says as well. Things are clearly awkward at the close contact we suddenly find ourselves in. To be honest, I never really took note of it before but I see the scar that adorns her face, along her left eye, just like mine although not as… severe. It doesn't in the least detract from her—

"HEYOOO!"

"AH!"

*SHINK*

My arm rushes forward and I stab something.

"Ah! Good! Very good form! With work you should be able to handle Myrtenaster no problem!" Weiss suddenly moves away from me and takes a refined stance as she talks loudly and quickly. I pull the weapon out and hold it out in both my hands.

"Yes! Thank you very much for allowing me to try my hand at your swordsmanship!" I too loudly and quickly say as I hand her weapon back to her. "I look forward to continuing to learn under your tutelage!" I straighten up with my hands behind my back.

"And I look forward to teaching you about my style of fighting!" She replies with a smile and I return it as she sheathes her weapon to her side. As one, we turn on our feet to those who interrupted us. "Hello!"

"Hey! How are you doing?" I ask those standing in the doorway with the smiles stuck on our faces.

"…"

"…"

"…" Blake, Ruby and Yang stare, blinking with blanks stares at us before all three of them turn their heads to the side, now staring at the wooden frame of the doorway that has a nasty hole embedded into it. Particularly, just about a few inches away from Yang's face. "Are we interrupting something?" She asks as she stares back at us.

Weiss and I share a glance back at each other before relaxing finally. "Not really. We were just… training?"

"Yes. Training." She confirms what I said with a nod. "Ethan mentioned that one of his conditions to being here was he had to become a partner to all of us. He proposed that in order to better learn about team cohesion, we should learn how to fight with each others weapons. I was just showing him the proper way to wield and attack using my weapon… and sometime in the future he'll teach me how to use his weapons."

"Yeah- wait, really?" I do a double take after think more on what I heard from her. _'I was cool with her teaching me about her fighting, but I wasn't expecting her wanting to learn from me.'_ The others seem confused at that idea too.

"Really Weiss?" Blake asks.

"You want to learn how to fight like him?" Ruby asks too.

"You've seen how he fights right?" Yang asks with a smirk and a thumb to me.

"Hey." I don't take to kindly to what she means.

"Why not? It sounds like a good opportunity for us to better know how we fight and should something happen, it can't hurt to know just in case." She explains a bit more before turning back to me. "How about it Ethan?" She asks.

My response isn't immediate as I am touched by the idea that she would be willing to learn from me. As I said before, I knew I wanted to learn about her more but I still wasn't expecting the other way around. After a moment's hesitation, I smile and nod my head. "I'd be honored Weiss." She nods back. I turn to the others with a hopeful look. "Well girls, how about it? I'd love to learn how to use your weapons, but what would you say to learning how to use about Razor and Revolt?" I accentuate the question by unfolding the weapons into my hands. The smirk doesn't leave my face as I stare at them.

They look at me before glancing to Weiss and back at me then to each other. Without another word uttered, they look back and smile.

* * *

 **Probably wasn't expecting this so soon weren't you all? After recently looking back at my previous chapter, I found out I apologized more than I would prefer on the lateness of my uploads. So expect another chapter soon before I get to work on my other stories.**

 **Decided as a bit of a take away from the shows story, I wanted to make my own chapter and give the idea of just what Ethan will be doing in the future with his team. Don't know exactly how many chapter I'll do where it's not part of the show itself. This was a sort of on the spot thing I did. I started working on the next episode but for some reason I started getting the feeling that something wasn't right. I felt the transition between the last chapter and the next episode wasn't perfect and so this one kind of came up. I hope this was cool with you all. Not an expert in making solely my own type of chapters so while I'm satisfied with how this turned out, I still have some reservations about this, but I hope that's just me.**

 **In any case, thank you all for your patience for my absences in the past between chapter uploads and I'm going to try to make an effort to upload more. Unfortunately though my classes are starting to pick back up and I've got some exams and assignments on the horizon so while I say I want to work on my stories, we'll see if my school work will allow me to.**

 **Although another problem came up just before I was going to upload this. I took some new medication for acne and well, it would seem I had an allergic reaction to the stuff and I blew up in Hives. God it sucked itching all over the place, even my fingers swelled a little so it stung for me to properly type for extended periods of time. Went to the hospital and was given something to counteract the reactions but it should be a few days before I'm back to 100%. This would technically be the first time in my life I've had an allergic reaction to something and I'm glad I didn't have my throat and tongue swell up.**

 **In any case, despite that I'm alright and not gonna stop anytime soon. The time for work will be lessened but not stopped. Thank you all for your support. Fave, follow, review, have a great day, and as always, have fun reading.**


	8. 7 Jaunedice

I still couldn't believe that the others agreed to wanting to learn from me a bit more on my weapons and they were on board with the idea of training with each other's weapons. Well, not each other per say. I'll be the one teaching them on how to fight with my weapons while they also teach me on how to fight with their weapons. It'll be the perfect opportunity for me to form a better bond with everyone on my team like I was told I had to do. We're not all going to do the training at once or so close together. First off I'm going to continue working with Weiss before I take my chances with the others. To be honest, with the others, some I'm excited for while others make me… nervous.

Blake's is what I'm probably the most excited to work with. The way how she moves so fluently with her weapon set, Gambol Shroud, reminds me of my own a bit and I can't wait to learn how to use that weapon to its full extent.

Yang's is what I'm somewhat tense about but not as much. My fighting style focuses more on close quarters combat, just like hers, minus the concussive shotgun additions, but it would be interesting to see just how she teaches me to fight using her Ember Celica.

Ruby's though I think I'm the most nervous about. For crying out loud she's small, cute, incredibly nice and has one of the deadliest weapons I've ever seen! The sheer size of Crescent Rose makes me feel it'll be quite cumbersome but how she uses it makes it seem like it's extremely light and how she can cut down Grimm with ease and blow them apart with her sniper rifle. While I'm nervous about using her weapon, I am quite curious to see how I perform with it.

Either way, their weapons are pretty cool and looking forward to learning more about them. Not to mention they are willing to learn about my style too so that'll be quite a learning experience for all involved.

* * *

"This is the part where you lose."

"Over my dead—!"

Before Jaune can finish, Cardin knees him in the gut, making the boy drop his sword and kneal over in pain. Seeing his opponent so vulnerable, Cardin can't help but bring his giant mace overhead and prepares to defeat his opponent.

"Cardin, that's enough!" The Instructor, Glynda Goodwitch, calls out as the buzzer rings and the lights come back on. Not wanting to gain the ire of the instructor, he walks away from his opponent as she comes on stage to address everyone. Ethan lets out a breath of relief at the interruption. He was very tempted to move in and prevent the jackass from smashing his friend but now their instructor speaks. "Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match." She explains to everyone what expect and how these matches work. Jaune takes out his own scroll and sees the blinking red bar along with the full ones of his team. "Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your Scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more… defensive strategy." She feels the need to remind the defeated student. "We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now, would we?" She remarks.

"Speak for yourself." Cardin comments, making Ethan growl, and walks off the stage.

"Remember, everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away! It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale!" She informs everyone of the festival. Meanwhile members of team RWBEY are excited for it, with Yang punching the air with anticipation, Weiss shaking her fists with an excited smile, Ruby bounces with enthusiastic energy and squealing softly, and Ethan smiling at the idea.

The bell rings after she finishes talking, and students start leaving while Pyrrha continues to frown sadly. Jaune, still sitting on the floor, hangs his head in shame. Ethan shakes his head at the display and goes to help his friend.

* * *

"So! There we were, in the middle of the night…"

"It was day."

"We were surrounded by Ursai…"

"They were Beowolves."

"Dozens of them!" Nora loudly proclaims to her audience, where as Yang is listening with rapt attention to the story, Weiss is busy filing her nails, Blake is reading her book, Jaune is messing with his food, and Pyrrha, Ruby and I are simply listening to her tail.

"Two of 'em." Ren meanwhile corrects his friend of any embellishing details she adds.

"But they were no match and in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!" She finishes with a smile an triumphant look. My head cocks to the side in confusion. _'Wait, how? Grimm completely evaporate when killed.'_

Ren meanwhile sighs, "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now." _'Ah, okay. That explains it.'_

"You think it means something?" I ask him but he shrugs his shoulders unsure.

"Jaune? Are you okay?" My attention is focused to Pyrrha who asks her leader.

"Huh?" He snaps out of it and turns to us, "Oh, yeah! Why?" He asks like it's all good when in reality he was looking pretty down as he was absent mildly messing with is food.

"It's just that you seem a little… not okay…" Ruby points out.

This attention gets everyone else notice as well so everyone is now staring at the blonde depressed leader. "Guys, I'm fine. Seriously, look!" He tries to dissuade us by giving us a thumbs up and laughing but it comes off as nervously so it fails miserably.

I shake my head at the denial but laughing from elsewhere shifts the focus now. As it stands, the reason for Jaunes misery, as well as a lot of other peoples comes from Cardin and his cronies. Right now they've decided to take it upon themselves to harass a rabbit faunas student several tables away. Cardin himself is laughing at her and another of his teammates mimics her ears with his fingers on his own head while the faunas girl shrinks in her seat at the taunting. My growl lowly at the actions and my hands clench in anger.

"Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school!" Pyrrha points and its true. That jackass has been bullying him for a long time now and his actions have also shifted to other students as well, namely those of faunas qualities.

"Who? Cardin Winchester? Nah... He just likes to mess around! You know, practical jokes!" Jaune tries to deny it but its futile.

"Practical jokes my a—"

"He's a bully." Ruby statesm interrupting me from my low tone of voice.

The blonde scoffs at the notion. "Oh, please! Name one time he's 'bullied' me."

The deadpan looks we give him are pretty evident on how much we know about his bullying. "The time he knocked your books out of your arms." Blakes says.

"Then when he activated your shield in the middle of a doorway." Ren mentions another incident.

"Yeah but—"

"Or the time he stuffed you in one of the lockers and programmed it to send you flying into the forest!" Ruby says loudly and firmly. We turn back to him to see him a little nervous on the focused attention.

"I didn't land far from the school." He tries to laugh it off but slap my hand on my forehead.

"Jaune," I pull my hand down and look at him crossly at how he's trying to play all this off. "I had to summon Raven and Shadow to scour all over the place for you!" I loudly state to the guy as I press a finger to his chest. "You're lucky Shadow's got your scent or we wouldn't have found you." That little incident sucked and took the better part of a day to find him.

"Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask." Pyrrha offers.

"Ooooh!" Nora suddenly gets up onto the table and sports what may be a not-entirely-sane grin on her face. "We'll break his legs!"

"… Tempting." I mutter. Suddenly there are eyes on me. "Oh c'mon! You know as well as I do that if anyone deserves that, it's him." Shaking head nods are the reply to my reason.

"Guys, really, it's fine! Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me; he's a jerk to everyone."

"Ow!" Jaune's statement rings true as Cardin and his teammates continue to harass the rabbit faunas student, now the asshole going as far as to tug on her ears while she cries in pain. "That hurts! Please, stop…"

"I told you it was real!"

"What a freak!"

My fingers clench harshly as they pop loudly for the others to hear. Not wanting to see this crap anymore, my mind is made up as I quickly stand up. "I'll be back." I growl as I start making my way over to team CRDL.

"Ethan wait!" Ruby calls out but that doesn't stop me.

"Don't interfere." I reply back and continue walking up to them as they continue to laugh. Once I'm close enough, I stop and cross my arms. "This is pathetic." I say loud enough for them to hear. They stop their laughing and taunting, along with Cardin letting her go. "Please leave ma'am. You don't need to be here." I say to bullied student and nod my head away from us. Taking the chance to go, she gets up and goes.

"Hey! I'm not done with- Arrh!" Cardin goes to grab her but my hand flashes outward and grips his hand, twisting it harshly and painfully for him to focus on me again. She looks back to me for a second from the noise but I nod for her to keep going.

"Pathetic." I growl out and throw his hand away from me as his teammates move closer to me. "All of you ganging up on one student. Cowards." I insult them outright. I steady myself as they start to move closer to me.

"Hold it." Cardin's voice stops them from going any further. He rubs his hand a little from the grip I gave him as she stalks up to and bares down on me. "What are you saying then? You think none of us alone could take you on?" He challenges me. My arms stay folded as I smirk at him.

"Prove it then. You and me. Right now." I challenge back and fold my arms behind my back. "I'll even let you have the first shot." I lean my head forward a little in emphasis.

Cardin and his teammates chuckle and laugh at what I suggest before Cardin himself grins evilly. "Hehe, alright then. Your funeral." He pops his knuckles as he readies himself to deliver the first punch of the fight. He reels his arm back and sends it forward.

My head leans back, making him miss hardcore. "Ohhhh so close! C'mon you can do better than that." I taunt as I straighten up.

"Grrrr! Hold STILL!" He tries to punch me again but I dodge it again… and again and again and again as he throws punch after punch to try to hit me but I move, duck, dodge out of the way seamlessly. The smile never leaving my face as I continue to backup away from him. Already I can feel the eyes of everyone else in the cafeteria on us as the one-sided fight goes on with him trying to punch me and me simply dodging and moving back. Already I can feel his anger boiling off as he continues to miss me. Before I know it, my back hits the doors to the lunch room much to my surprise. "Got you!" My view shifts to the door for a second and that's all that he needs to get his shot in finally.

"Ethan!" The fist that connects to the side of my face is like I was hit by truck as one of my friends call out my name. I'm forced back through the doors where I stumble a few times and slam into the opposite wall.

"Arh." I hiss as the pain courses through my face and I bring a hand up to the rapidly forming bruise on the right side of my face. I look up to see Cardin getting ready for another punch.

"Should've just stayed out of it." He mutters with a sadistic smile and pulls his arm back. I can see his aura forming on his fist, getting ready for a much more powerful shot this time around on my now dazed state.

*CRASH*

"Mr. Winchester!" I look up from my spot on the floor at the large fist that went through the wall where my head was. A large spider-web of cracks go off in all directions from where he punched the wall. Looking to the side, I can't help but smirk at seeing Miss Goodwitch standing there. Cardin looks from me to the instructor and gets a very scared and very frightful look on his face at seeing her of all people right here.

"Uhh, ma'am I—"

Cardin begins to say but a pointed finger held up tells him to shut up right there. "Mr. Wright, do you need to go to the infirmary?"

"Mm." I grunt as I stand up and rub my cheek. "No ma'am. I'm good."

"Very well then." She shifts her focus back to my assailant. "I think you know what happens now Mr. Winchester." She crossly tells him. His shoulders slump and nods sadly. "Follow me." She says and starts walking away.

I watch as she goes away with Cardin trailing after her with a defeated expression about him. "This isn't over." He growls just as he passes me.

"Looks over to me." I reply and with a smile on my face I head back into the cafeteria. I resume my spot where I was eating next to my friends. Before I can take a bite, the others stare at me with looks of surprise on their faces. "What?"

"What?! That's all you have to say?!" Weiss loudly replies with a bit of anger. "You decide to pick a fight with him, with his team backing him up, get punched by him and all you have to say is WHAT?!" She loudly says to me from the other side of the table.

I lean forward and give her a pointed look. "Weiss, are you saying I was reckless in my action of interrupting Cardin and luring him all the way to the hallway where the strictest teacher we have just so happened to be walking by and catch him in the act of attacking me?" I ask her in a faux way. I sit up straight and place my hands on the table. At the surprised looks everyone has on their faces, I rub my nose, sniffing, but as my hand glides past my cheek, my black aura flares up and the bruise is gone as soon as my hand goes back to the table. Their looks of surprise and disbelief are priceless. "C'mon guys, give me some credit." I say as I smile.

"You cheeky little—!"

I lean to the right and back as a fist tries to hit me from behind but misses. I grab the head of the person who missed and slam them onto the table, dazing them as they slump to the ground. I bring my right arm back and elbow the person right below the belt, making them groan in pain as they crumple to the floor holding the neither. The last person tries to hit me from behind with a tray but I forward, making him miss. With the missed attack, he goes forward and gives me the opportunity to hook my arm under his leg and throw him up into the air. He lands hard on the table on his back and rolls off on the other side.

The remaining members of team CRDL lay on the ground groaning from their beating after they tried to surprise attack me. My team along with JNPR look around in disbelief at what just happened before with Cardin, and now with his team.

I see Raven pass by out the window, having been able to see Miss Goodwitch enter the building and relaying the image to me along with the surprise attack.

I take a bite of my pancake.

* * *

' _Oh god! What is this guy on?!'_ I ask myself that question a lot whenever I enter this class with Dr. Oobleck. He is quite an interesting teacher and every time I have to listen to his lectures I feel like taking a nap afterwards. Just trying to keep up with his talking on my mind alone leaves me drained The drinks a lot of coffee but there's no way that alone could have him be so god-damned fast!

"Yes! Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution- more popularly known as the Faunus War- humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie. Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day! Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?" At the question he gives, I breathe a breath of relief at the short break and give a look at my surroundings. Lots of students are here and most are keeping their heads up to listen but some, like Jaune next to me, are napping. Cardin is behind us, directly behind Jaune laid back but I can feel his eyes boring into me after my stint that landed him being disciplined by Miss Goodwitch. To our right on the next set of rows is the faunus who was being bullied by that jerk, who I found out is named Velvet Scarlatine, above her is Pyrrha, Blake, then Weiss on the one above.

In regards to his question, some students who are faunus do raise their hands. Velvet herself looks hesitant to draw attention but as she catches my eye, I give her a comforting smile and nod. She finally does raise her hand.

"Dreadful, simply dreadful!" Dr. Oobleck continues his lecture. "Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence!" He takes another sip of his coffee. "I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to White Fang! Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the War?" Weiss raises her hand. "Yes?"

"The battle at Fort Castle."

"Precisely! And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?" Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Cardin getting ready to flick a paper football at my friends head. My hand flies up and catches it just before it hits his head. "Ah, Mr. Wright! Excellent! Maybe you can enlighten with the answer!" Suddenly our instructor is right in front of me, with Jaune wide awake and just as confused as I am. It's only I realize that me catching the piece of paper has made it look like that my hand is raised to answer the question… which I don't have the answer to right now.

"Ohhh, uhhh…" I bring my hand down under the desk. "The advantage that uhhhh… the faunus had over the General was…" As I speak, I try to think up all that I know about the battle and what the answer might be. _'He had a massive army but something the faunus had that he didn't was what rendered those numbers intert. What was it?'_ As my mind tries to run through the possibilities, I look past Dr. Oobleck to Pyrrha as she waves to get my attention. I clear my throat to buy more time, "Eh-hem what they had… that helped them win… was…" She points to her eyes and circles them with her hands. _'Binoculars? But wasn't the battle at ni—'_ "Night… vision." I answer hesitantly, remembering that little trait of most faunus and hope its right.

"Yes! Excellent answer there!" I breathe in relief. "Can anyone else add more onto the subject?" He asks the rest of the class. Pyrrha raises her hand. "Yes, Miss. Nikos?"

"Night vision is a trait that many faunus are known to have, in which they have nearly-perfect sight in the dark."

"General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured." Blake adds more onto the matter before she turns to Cardin. "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, and not goofing off, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure." _'Okay, so she saw what he did. Good.'_

Cardin, angry at the jab gets up from his chair. "Mr. Winchester! Please take your seat." Dr. Oobleck demands of him. "You and Mr. Wright can both see me after class for additional readings." He instructs and goes back to teaching. At this point when I'm to stay and be given additional work, unless I know I did something wrong, it's just the extra work from my position on my team. "Now! Moving on!"

* * *

Once class passes, Cardin and I are the only ones left in the classroom with Dr. Oobleck. He takes a sip of his coffee. _'How much does he have?'_ I ask myself absent mildly as it gets kind of hard to see when he gets himself a refill.

"Now then, Mr. Wright I assume you already know why I asked you hear?"

I nod, "I know the drill sir. Extra reading assignment and an essay to go with what I read."

"Excellent! I wish I didn't have to give you so much extra work but I am glad to see it hasn't hindered you whatsoever! You may go." He gestures to the door with his coffee hand.

Nodding again, I get up from my seat and make my way up the stairs. "See ya Cardin." I mutter with a bored tone as I pass his row.

"Shut up." He replies and I can't help but smirk. _'Still mad about Goodwitch.'_ I think as I make it to the door and go out. As soon as I'm out, I find myself greeted by Jaune and Pyrrha, although the former is a little down for some reason.

"Oh. Hey you two. What's up?"

"Well, Jaune wanted to stay and say something to you." Pyrrha nudges the guy a little, bringing him out of his slump.

"Oh, right. Listen uhhh, Pyrrha told me what you did. Thank you for helping me back there. I probably would have made a fool of myself if you hadn't saved me like that." He thanks me and nod back.

Bringing my hand up, I pull out the paper football Cardin was going to use on him and smirk. "No problem." I pocket the little thing and turn to her. "And thank YOU for saving me back there. You definitely saved me." I thank her. I vaguely remember the battle itself and it was because of her that I remembered the night-vision aspect that faunas have.

She smiles back to me. "It's the least I could do as well as thanks for helping Jaune like that."

"Even I didn't know what you were doing back there with your eyes. I probably would have said binoculars or something." Jaune points out as we three begin walking away.

"I only barely got it. I was going to say binoculars if I hadn't remembered the time of day that happened with the battle and it was only because of you that it clicked." I mention to Pyrrha.

"Glad to see it helped." She says but as we come to a cross-section of the hallways, she takes a second longer to look at Jaune before she looks like she got an idea. "Speaking of helping, come with me!" She grabs his hand and they bolt down one of the hallways.

"Hey! Whoa!" Her package yelps confused as he's suddenly dragged along.

"Good luck on your work Ethan!" Pyrrha replies back before she and him disappear around another corner.

For the longest time I find myself staring where they disappeared. "Okay then." I mutter and turn a different direction. "I swear I feel like they- Oof!"

"Oh!" I slam into something and suddenly find myself on the ground along with someone else and a clatter of things. Taking a moment to shake off the daziness, I see a familiar rabbit faunus just as dazed sitting in front of me, rubbing her head with several books scattered around. When she notices me, she blushes and begins apologizing. "Oh! Oh no! I'm so sorry! I was distracted and I didn't see where I was going and I'm so sorry I bumped into you!"

"Hey hey hey!" I ease her back on the furious apologizing with pushing my hands down gesture. "It's cool. No harm no foul." I tell its alright and that makes her relax a bit. "Here, let me help you." I offer and begin picking up the books she dropped.

"Oh, yes. Thank you." She appreciates the gesture and we begin picking up several of her books and by the time I gather half and so does she, I can tell why she bumped into me. Both stacks together almost cover her vision. "Sorry, one of the professors needs these and I volunteered to pick them up."

"That's cool. Where do you need these?" I ask once we got everything.

"It's not far, I'll show you." She begins to lead me down the hallway to where their needed. We don't talk or banter or anything. She walks and I follow here. True to her word a couple different hallway turns do we come to another classroom that I don't recall coming to. "Here we go." She backs into the door and opens it for us. No one is here so I don't know who needs them but I'm not hung up on it. In any case she simply sets the books down on the top row table and I follow suit. "That's all that's needed. Thank you." She thanks me and gives me a small head bow.

"No problem." I nod back and take a step to the door. "Well, I'll be seeing you."

"Wait." Her word stops me. Turning back from the exit, I see she's looking sheepish and looking down. "Why did you help me? With… him… that time?" She asks. The hesitance in her words, what she asks, already I know who she's talking about.

I smirk and look down myself. "Why indeed." I mutter quietly. She looks up at that but it's a second before I look back up to her. "I guess you could say I don't like seeing a pretty girl get bullied," She blushes at that, "Or I could say I just don't like bullying in general… Or…" I look down and flex my right hand out of her view. "I could say I know what it feels like to be bullied. I'll leave that to you." I smile before I make my way to the door. "See you later Velvet. Take care." The last thing I see before I pass through the door is her slightly surprised face but adorns a smile at the end.

The bitter memories of my own problems I've had in the past come up but seeing how things have progressed, I smile nonetheless.

* * *

 **Alright, well that was a good set up chapters I managed to crank out. It's about time I gave this story some much needed work after my constant blunderings with it and I hope you guys like this. Originally this chapter was going to include the next set of episodes but I felt I was taking too long on it. Don't know if I was but I just felt like it. Reason being is, as I said in the previous chapter, I got hit with a bad case of an allergic reaction, i.e. Hives, to some medicine I was taking and it rendered me pretty out of commission and woozy for almost a week. Still going to be woozy and a little weak for a bit more time as I take a different medication to combat the reaction but the worst has passed. Now's it's a matter of toughing it out for now until I am fully back to 100%.**

 **Not much else has been going on with me, besides a few tests and assignments I had to do for different classes but it's all good.**

 **Oh, also I saw the new episode for volume 5 of RWBY and it was awesome! Granted I'm not a FIRST member so I'm only seeing the episodes that release on YouTube so I'm behind from the original air date for the episodes but the first episode was awesome nonetheless. Very interested to see what else pops up in the show that'll make me and you all excited, scared, tense, I don't know but this is going to be good. People have met, plans are being set, new possibilities and so on. This is going to be good everyone.**

 **Thank you all for reading. Have a great day, hope everything goes well for everyone, and as always have fun reading.**


	9. 8 Forever Fall

It was nice helping Velvet. Being a Faunus and all I can only imagine the amount of discrimination she'd get because of it. When alone I too was bullied and looked down because of my Grimm ability or because I was basically a street urchin wherever I went. So I do know how it feels, albeit not as much as what she might have gone through, but still. If I can I'll do what I can to help her out when I can. IF it means carrying just a little of her workload, I'm all for it.

However after that, things have kind of been a bit… off. What I mean by that is the fact that our friend Jaune has been spending an uncharacteristically specific amount of time with the resident bully of our school Cardin Winchester. Like not being specifically targeted by him constantly, more so like he asks and Jaune goes to him without any complaints whatsoever. Jaune comes off as… too eager at times to help Cardin with whatever he's asking. It's been a couple days since I helped Velvet and when things started to get weird with Jaune.

That's why I decided to peak my curiosity about this whole mess and ask one of his teammates.

"Pyrrha." The red-haired huntress-in-training looks up from her book to me sitting across from her in the library.

"Oh, hey Ethan. Did you need something?" She asks me good heartedly but as soon as she sees the stern and focused look on my face, her smile falls.

"Jaune." She flinches a little at that, further proving that something is up. "I've seen him hanging out with Cardin. A lot more than he should and a hell of a lot more than with you his own team. Somethings up and if it's any consolation I wanna know." I bluntly request of her. Jaune may not come off as the best of a fighter or possible huntsmen at that, but damnit he's my friend and I'll be damned if I'm going to let anyone hurt my friends.

Pyrrha gets a subtle slightly nervous look about her before she looks around us in case anyone is nearby before looking back at me. "What makes you think somethings wrong with him?"

"Oh give me some credit Pyrrha. I've been to all of the kingdoms at least once and I've seen different forms of people getting what they want from others. Whether its by a knife to a throat or a stealthily hidden meaning behind a subtle threat, I've seen it." I explain softly. A lot of times I've seen, and been the on the receiving end, of muggings and stick-ups and other times I've seen from afar or online of some official being forced to do something that they don't want to do because of leverage from someone else. "And Cardin's got something on your leader to make him his personal lapdog." I lean closer to her, "So spill."

She gives me a wide-eyed look before looking down to the table and appears to be thinking. It doesn't look like she appears to want to tell me considering her tightened fists that curl up. I'm tempted to forget all about it, not wanting to push her and all, but she changes that once she looks up. "Alright, follow me." She gets up out of her seat and proceeds to walk out the library with me following. A few minutes pass as I walk behind her to wherever we are going but eventually we stop outside behind one of the buildings on the edge of the academy. She quickly looks around once more before looking at me. "Can you bring out Raven and Shadow to make sure no one's around? And to keep an eye out, please?" She asks. I'm a little shocked and stunned at the request on how much she wants to make sure no one is listening in, which of course sounds to me like its that much more important.

Without any argument from me, my hand flexes and my black Aura flows out. We look up and spot Raven flying in circles before perching on the corner of the building that rounds to us closest. Shadow silently stalks out of a nearby bush and he goes over to the other corner. With the both of them in place, they take up positions as lookouts and keep an eye out for anyone that may be watching or possibly eavesdropping on us. The fact that they don't sense anyone right off the bat is a good start. "Alright, you're good."

Pyrrha nods at the precaution and begins. "A few nights ago, after you helped Jaune and I helped you in Dr. Oobleck's class, I took Jaune somewhere quiet to offer my help to train him. As we both know, he's not exactly the most… experienced of fighters." She hesitantly admits.

I nod along. "Yes yes I have… noticed that too." The beat down that he faced against Cardin as a demonstration accentuated that fact.

"Well, what happened was, I tried to get him to agree to let me train him. You know to give him a bit of a push to get better. It… didn't go as well as I was hoping." She rubs her arm embarrassingly before continuing, "He got a little angry at the idea of being a 'damsel in distress' and he said—" She stops and quickly looks around again before looking at me expectantly. Concentrating a bit, through the link I have Shadow and Raven don't see or feel anyone else nearby that can eavesdrop on us. I nod at her, giving her just a bit of comfort again before she continues. "Jaune… faked his way into Beacon."

And with that, she reveals to me something that would clearly and obviously get our friend kicked out. Even so, I'm kind of surprised at the idea of Jaune of all people being able to fake his way into this place. "Jaune… Jaune Ark… your leader… was able to fake his way into THIS place?" I accentuate 'this' by pointing towards our feet with both hands.

"Yes! I don't know how. I never asked but he was still pretty angry at me after so I just left. Ever since that night he's been acting like he and Cardin are the best of friends when we both know they clearly are not!" She sternly states and I can't help but agree.

"And that's why you were so cautious right now, because you think Cardin may have heard?" I surmise and she nods.

"Yes. That's the only thing I can think of that he may be using to lord over Jaune."

I groan and rub my head, "Classic blackmail move. And on Jaune no less. He's been in Cardin's sights since practically day one." That's the best reason for why Cardin is pretending to act buddy buddy with Jaune. Suddenly going from bullying to asking for 'favors' doesn't just happen overnight without some sort of legitimate reason and that seems as good a reason as any.

"So… what do we do? I don't want to just tell everyone about Jaune's… special case, especially Nora, so I don't know what to do. Not without Cardin exposing him. I don't want Jaune to be kicked out." She says the last part sadly.

To be honest, I don't want to see Jaune gone either. Ruby and Yang were my first friends here in this place followed by Jaune. With work he can do some good here. Plus as an added incentive, there is no way I'd let a jackass like Cardin get the last laugh on him like that. "And I don't want to see him gone either." I mutter before putting a hand to my chin and begin to think. However I don't get to think long as Raven sends a signal to me showing we're going to have company. The groundskeeper. I quickly grab Pyrrha's hand, much to her surprise, and dispel my pets as we walk hastily to the opposite side. "Look, tomorrow we got a field trip to the forest so let's go deal with that first before we try to come up with any plans to help him." As soon as I say that, we pass the corner and I glance back as the groundskeeper comes into view but doesn't see us. "Don't worry, we'll come up with something. For now, play it cool." I quietly mutter to her as we begin to come into view of the main campus area. While I'm not looking directly at her, I can tell she's smiling.

"Thank you, Ethan." She replies quietly before splitting up.

"No problem." I reply just before we go out of earshot. As I walk with my hands in my pockets, I sigh at the obligation I now find myself in. _'Jeez Jaune. This is a hell of mess you've gotten yourself into.'_ Amidst my thoughts, I glance back to Pyrrha as she heads back to the library while I back to RWBY's room. _'Lucky for you, you've got friends willing to help. Not the fake kind you got forced into with Cardin.'_

* * *

' _Alright. What can we do? Cardin doesn't exactly have any secrets we can exploit to get him to back off so back-blackmailing him probably won't work. Intimidation? Maybe… he's a tough guy but maybe I can force him to back off. I've dealt with my fair share of guys like him so I'm sure I can do something. Might have to be when he's in a weakened state. Come to think about it, Nora was pretty excited to break his legs. I'm sure when he's sleeping in the nurses office recovering at night, maybe, just maybe, he might he might have a nightmare of some Grimm sneaking into his room, prepared to eat him and a disembodied voice telling him to stop.'_

"Heheheheee." I quietly grin at the idea.

"What's so funny?" I almost jump at the voice. Looking down, I see Ruby looking up at me curiously to my spot on my bed. We're both already in our sleep attire and getting ready to go to bed. The others aren't here yet as they're doing some last minute preparations for the field trip tomorrow.

"Oh, nothing. Just something stupid. Nothing you need to concern yourself with." I try to play her off from what I'm really thinking but she continues to stare at me, even giving a smile questionable eyebrow raise. "Don't you have something to go do?" I quickly ask her.

"Yes. I am going to go find the rest of our team. Theirs no way I'm going to have US do all the work while their still sleepy eyed for not getting enough sleep." She explains and heads to the door under me.

"Well good luck with that." I say and go back to me thinking.

"Thanks." I hear the door close. "Hey, Jaune!" That gets my attention. Apparently she didn't close it all the way. Silently I climb down the ladder before going close to the door to listen. As I peek out the door, I see Jaune outside with a grinning and giggling Ruby, no doubt because of his slightly startled expression. "Long time, no see! Did you lock yourself out again?" She asks.

"Oh, uh, nope. Got it." He triumphantly states as he holds up his scroll. It also doesn't help that he tries to laugh it off but its pretty bad.

"So. Where have you been lately?" Ruby asks him. I have a pretty good idea myself on where he's been but as it stands she and not many others know

"I, uh..." He tries to come up with something from his stuttering but he flops and just sighs with a lowered head. "I messed up. I did something I shouldn't have, and now Cardin has me on a leash, and Pyrrha won't even talk to me, and…" He takes a deep breath through his nose before continuing. "I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea." With that train of thought he becomes depressed as he presses his back to his team's door and slides down to the floor. "I'm a failure."

"Nope!"

Jaune looks up at her in surprise at the blunt statement. "'Nope?'"

"Nope!" She says again before putting a bit more into her words. "You're a leader now, Jaune. You're not allowed to be a failure." It's a small statement but one that is very true. _'And that's why your my leader Ruby.'_ I can't help but think.

"But... what if I'm a failure at being a leader?"

For a moment, Ruby seems to think about it. "…Nope!" She doesn't think long.

It's not much in the way of words for him but Jaune laughs regardless as she joins him on the floor. "You know, you're not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff."

"Nope! Jaune, maybe you were a failure when you were a kid..." He groans and sinks lower to the ground. "... and you might've even been a failure the first day we met!" He groans even more and goes lower still. _'Geeze Ruby, laying it on a little strong aren't you?'_ I think as I watch the blonde leaders demeanor falter considerably. "But, you can't be one now. You know why?" She asks.

"Uhhh, because...?"

"Because it's not just about you anymore. You've got a team now, Jaune. We both do! And if we fail, then we'll just be bringing them down with us." She states a matter of fact. She then gets up and places her hands on her hips as she speaks. "We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second. Your team deserves a great leader, Jaune. And I think that can be you." It's not just Jaune who's surprised and inspired by her but me as well. Even though she's younger than anyone else in the entirety of Beacon, she's really coming into her place as a leader. I've seen Weiss give her tips every now and then on how to properly lead but this… this wasn't in the lessons. _'Well done Ruby._ ' She then gets up and starts to go down one of the hallways to go find our other teammates but soon stops and gives Jaune a small wave. "Have a good night, Jaune!" She goes off, leaving me to continue watching out the cracked door and a slightly inspired Jaune.

With new energy, Jaune pushes himself off the ground and faces the door to his teammates. I smile at the new confidence he has but his Scroll beeps, interrupting him. He pulls it out and plays what message he got. "Hey! It's your buddy Cardin!" Not surprising, my hands clench and my blood boils. "I know you're probably busy with that Dust project I gave you, buuuut I'm gonna need you to go out and get me a bag of Rapier Wasps." Jaune flinches in response to the request. "And make sure they've got some really big stingers! It's important, so don't screw this up!" The message ends there so Jaune closes his Scroll just when it begins to beep again. He sighs as he wearily heads down the hallway and away from his room.

"Jaune." I step out and call his name. He stops and turns back to me, a defeated look about him as he looks at me. The leash Cardin has on him is a veritable tight but short one and he is not letting up at all. "… Hang in there."

"IIIII don't know…"

"Hang…" I interrupt him before he can finish. "… In there." After repeating what I said, I smirk before heading back into my room. This time I close the door completely and lay my hand against the wall. "Uuhhhhhh… damn…" I groan before clenching my hand. "Please, something happen soon." I can't help but hope as I get ready for bed.

* * *

The next day rolls around and like what was mentioned before, our field trip to the forest has commenced. Professor Peach has given us an assignment that requires us to be in the Forever Fall forest and since it's still a part of the Grimm infested territory, Professor Goodwitch is here to make sure everything runs smoothly and no one dies. That would be a shame… for some.

Even though it's teeming with Grimm, it doesn't detract at all from the beauty of the forest itself as we walk through it, all of team RWBY, JNPR and CRDL.

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful." She comments at the wonderous looks most of us sport from looking all around at our surroundings. The falling leaves kind of add to the atmosphere we are in. "But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so." The group stops, and Jaune, who's grunting and carrying a large case with six empty glass jars on top, tries to catch up with us from lagging behind some. I put an arm in front of him to make sure he doesn't bump into Cardin. Once he notices, he gives me a grateful smile. I return it as I edge my way to my teammates. "Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap." The professor reminds us of our objective as she holds up the jar for emphasis. I look down at the one in my own hand. "However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here by 4 o'clock. Have fun!" She instructs and walks away. While she may be here to make sure we are alright, that doesn't mean she needs to babysit us as we work. Yang flashes us a smile and my team begins moving forth.

"Come on, buddy. Let's go!" Before I move forward though, Cardins voice stops me. I turn around to see Cardin patting Jaune and going off with his team in a much different direction. Meanwhile, Jaune miserably looks up at his team, where Nora and Ren are already walking into the forest's depths and Pyrrha is staring sadly at him. I'm further past her staring as well and I stare as well at him. He looks between the two of us for a second before he drops his gaze and turns to follow CRDL, much to our disappointments as Pyrrha sighs before she continues on.

"Pyrrha," I call her name, making her look at me as the rest of our teammates move ahead and she's about to move past me. "You okay?"

She looks down as she replies. "No."

"Didn't think so." I sigh and look down as well. "Let's get this assignment over with, then we can help him."

"Sure." She replies depressed and with good reason. Jaune is her friend and leader and he's forced to be a bully's lapdog.

Without much more to say, we pick up the pace and meld back with the majority of our teams. Soon enough after several minutes of walking we come to a promising spot for us to gather our samples and get to work. It's a pretty easy process in hindsight but can take awhile if you don't find the right tree. Even then it does take least of all several minutes to fill an entire jar with sap. Fortunately, I have a… semi-reliable plan to make this easier on my team.

And by that, Shadow and Raven come out from behind a set of trees that my team and I are looking at while NPR look at another set. "What are they here for?" Yang asks as she pets Shadow.

"Well, during my time alone and some general knowledge, I found most creatures have a fondness for the sweet tasting sap that we're here to collect." I explain before taking a quick look around. "And seeing as we're alone from people who don't know my ability…" _'I'm looking at you CRDL.'_ I think before nodding to my summoned pets. They head to the nearest tree and Raven latches onto the tree before tapping her beak a couple times at different spots before sending a fierce stab into the trees bark, making my teammates flinch a little. Once she removes herself, Shadow leans and sniffs the hole before letting out a scoff with a head shake. I grimace at that as they go to another tree.

"Wait, so Grimm love this stuff?" Ruby asks as she leans into the hole. A single drop of the sap begins to drip from it but its at an incredibly slow rate.

I nod. "Yeah, and seeing as how these two are part Grimm themselves…" I let the sentence hang as they get ready to check another tree.

"That does explain why there are Grimm in this forest even though it's close to the city." Blake comments from the back of the group. As most Grimm age and live longer, they tend to learn to not mess with most of the thriving cities and pockets of human civilizations, less they be killed. The younger they are the more violent they can be and greedy in getting what they want. _'Thank you Professor Port.'_ He may focus more on retelling us stories of his youth but the book he gave me worked wonders in expanding my knowledge. The younger Grimm that love the sweet tree saps seem to be the ones that roam around here in the forest the most.

"Somewhat." I reply. Before anymore can be said, loud 'tapping' noises can be heard. We look at where our sap experts are and see Raven nestled nearby with Shadow rapidly pawing at the tree as he stares intently at the hole she made. "Jackpot." I mutter and head over with my team. Shadow licks the growing trickle of sap from the hole and leans back so I can look at it. Once I do, I see it's still trickling out but at a much faster rate than the previous ones. "Spout." I demand with my arm leaned back. One of my friends places it in my hand and I go ahead and jam it into the hole, place my jar down below it before opening it up. Once I do, the red syrupy sweet sap makes itself known as it trickles out of the tree, through the spout and starts collecting into the jar.

"Awesome! This'll make it make it so much easier for us!" Yang happily states and the others.

"Yeah…" I begin to say before looking at my pets as they look for another rich tree. "But doesn't it feel like a little… cheaty, perhaps?" I ask. Not many students of course have this ability of mine so get the feeling that it just might come off as unfair for other students that have to do this stuff as well.

"Professor Peach nor Goodwitch never did say we had to abide to specific rules when gathering." Weiss points. _'That's also true.'_ I think pensively as they find another tree. I nod for Yang to go get that one, which she does with a grin and jar in hand.

"Besides chopping down the threes though." Ruby states.

"Oh yeah, that too." I mutter. In fact, that bit of info was courtesy of Ruby. Apparently to make sap collecting… exciting, she thought it would be fun to chop down some of the trees and split them open to get at it right then and there. Others expressed and somewhat supported the same idea but of course, we couldn't. in any case, Shadow and Raven find some more trees for the others to use to gather their sap further in. "There you go. That should do it."

"Sweet! Thanks Ethan!" Ruby happily says as she goes to start collecting.

"Nice work." Weiss says as well and pats my shoulder as she and Blake walk over to their respective trees. I smile at how I was able to help my teammates relatively well in this regard, as well as show my pets aren't just used for fighting and spying.

"Hey uhhh, Ethan?" I turn around at my name being called to see the three members of NPR coming up to me. Pyrrha looks slightly nervous, Nora has her head staring to the ground with Ren looking slightly cross at her with his hands behind his back.

"Hey you." I greet them. "What'd you need?" I ask. They don't immediately answer me as they continue to shuffle a little until Pyrrha answers.

"Do you think… you could help us find some trees too?" I look at her confused on the request. I look slightly past them to the trees they were eyeing earlier and find they were already punctured for their sap.

"Huh, why? It looks like you three already got your sap. Why do you—"

"Bluuu!" Nora suddenly burps loudly. She covers her mouth but we already stare at her. She gives us a wide smile with her hands behind her back but it further proves her guilt, seeing as how her teeth are stained a little red from the sap. I stare at her confused for a few seconds before my eyes glaze over to the others. With a tired sigh, Ren pulls his hands from behind his back to reveal the three empty jars of sap. I know they were once filled with sap because I can see the stains inside them.

"Heeeee." I sigh and shake my head. _'I know their sweet but… I didn't think enough for her to… drink it almost straight.'_ Nonetheless, I go ahead and nod to Raven and Shadow as they come up on my right. They go off as I turn to NPR. "Follow them. They'll find you some trees."

"Thank you very much." Ren thanks me with a smile and goes off with Nora to start following.

"We appreciate it." Pyrrha too thanks me and follows her teammates. I nod as I wave them off.

"No problem. Let's see if we can hurry. I don't know if we have a time limit but can't hurt to get going soon." I go ahead and suggest for them to do. They nod at the idea before they go on further ahead into the trees. As I watch them go however, I get this weird feeling in my gut. _'Why do I feel like I'm being watched?'_ I think as I glance around. My eyes fall on Ruby, who is sitting down next to her jar of sap and waves at me. Her jar is already filled up to just below the halfway mark so hopefully if the others are well enough in their trees, we'll be out of here. "Huh, okay then." I mutter after seeing its Ruby looking at me before staring at my jar. It's already at the halfway mark. "Nice."

* * *

"Cardin, wh-what's going on?" Jaune hesitantly asks as they stop on the small hill and look down to the other students.

"Payback." Is the leader of team CRDL's reply. After having to do their dirty work and fill all six jars of tree sap for them, Jaune was no doubt tired of having to do the work of cutting into the trees in order to get the sap and waiting to get at every single jar filled for everyone. Of course while there were only five of them Cardin requested he fill up six instead. Now Cardin brought him and his team to a small hill overwatch to down below where everyone else is. As soon as he saw Ethan alone and in clear view, he got worried about why they were there. As soon as Cardin spoke, dread replaced that worry.

Jaune's eyes widen in understanding. "Ethan…?" He watches as his friend leans down to his jar under the tree. "Wh-what are you-?"

Cardin interrupts him as he pounds his fist into the ground angrily. "That's the guy. Smug know-it-all, thinks he's so smart. My team told me what he did in the cafeteria to get me in trouble with Goodwitch. Noe its time to return the favor. Alright, boys…" After his explanation, he pulls out a buzzing cardboard box with a large "W" written on its side. "Last night, old Jaune here managed to round up an entire box of Rapier Wasps, and now, we're gonna put him to work." Apparently at the good work he did, Russel grabs Jaune by the shoulder, in which Jaune laughs nervously. "Now, according to one of the essays you wrote for me last week, these nasty things loooove sweets." By this point Ethan finishes collecting his sap as he picks it up, filled to the brim. "And I can think of no better way to teach him a thing or two."

Ethan perks up for some reason and actually begins turning around. The members of CRDL shuffle back real quick to avoid getting spotted. "Puh." Jaune almost yelps as Cardin and Russel grab Jaune by his legs and pull him back so he doesn't get seen either. Soon they get to their feet and after Cardin painfully yanks Jaune up to his feet, he shoves the jar into his grasp.

"And you're gonna do it."

"Do what?" Jaune asks, though from what he can piece together, he can already hazard a guess as to what he needs the extra jar for.

"Hit him with the sap!" Cardin confirms it before he leans in close to Jaune's face. "Either that, or I'll have a chat with Goodwitch, and you'll be on the first airship out of Beacon." He threatens Jaune with the thing that's been keeping him as Cardin's servant the whole time.

Jaune looks down at the jar of sap in his hands and then up at the four grinning teammates waiting to see him hit Ethan, the guy who got them in trouble and beat them without much effort on his part. He turns towards the ground and walks closer to the edge until just his head is seen down. Ethan looks around a couple times before turning his back to Jaune again. _'He doesn't see me. It would be so easy from here. I could hit him and he wouldn't know. He's taken on worse. He could handle the wasps no problem.'_ Once Jaune is done thinking, he aims his throw at his friend… his first friend. _'Then… why can't I do it, if I know he can handle it?'_ He tries to steel his nerves and shaking hand to do the deed.

"Hey Ethan!" He freezes as he hears Ruby's voice, the same who just last night gave him some real confidence he's felt in a long time. She comes out of the trees right next to him. "My jars full. Soon as the others are done, we're good to go!"

"Awesome. Here." He hands his to her. "Why don't we put them over there so we don't lose them."

"Good idea." She takes his jar and runs past some trees.

"Thanks again for your help." Jaunes breath hitches as he sees Pyrrha come up to him. "We thought we were going to be here a lot longer thanks to Nora."

"I said I was sorry!"

"No problem! Go take it to Ruby. We're going to put them all together so no one loses their jar, or gets them."

"That's a good idea." She nods and walks to where Ruby went. Jaune's arm goes slack as he watches Pyrrha go out of view. _'Pyrrha… you were only trying to help.'_ He solemnly thinks as he remembers how she offered to train him, even though she knew his secret.

"What are you waiting for? Do it already." Cardin demands from behind him. Hearing that jerks voice breaks Jaune his contemplation and ultimately steels himself for what he's about to do.

"No." He firmly states.

"What did you say?" Cardin asks.

"I said…" Jaune begins to say as his grip tightens on the jar. "NO!" With a final yell, he turns right around and throws the jar right at Cardin. The jar breaks easily enough, but Jaune instantly recoils his hands to himself as he looks at Cardin's breastplate covered in sap. The other team leader, however, just looks at himself and laughs darkly.

"Oh, you've done it now..."

' _Uh-oh.'_ Jaune thinks as he humorously laughs to himself once more with his hands still raised in an attempt for defense. Unfortunately the other members of CRDL, Dove Bronzewing and Sky Lark, grab Jaune's shoulders and pull him.

* * *

"Grrrrrr!"

"Uhhhhh, Ethan? Shadow is kind of… growly at me." Nora nervously says.

"I know!" I call back without looking to her. "He's basically saying 'you've had enough.'"

"Whaaaaaat? Cuh! C'mon!" She playfully says. "Is this about earlier? Don't worry, I'm not going to—"

"GRRRRA!"

Suddenly Ren finds himself holding onto a frightened Nora as she clings to him. As it stands, no one wants to have to go looking for anymore trees to drain of their sap, not even Shadow as he stands protectively in front of some of the filled jars.

"Good boy." Pyrrha pats the wolf Grimm's head as she places her jar down. "Looks like we're almost done. Few more minutes of gathering and everyone should have their quota fulfilled."

"That's good. To be honest I'm not too privy to getting ambushed by Grimm anytime soon." I comment.

"Ditto." Blake agrees from nearby as she waits for her jar be filled, which is almost about done.

We lull into a small bead of silence with my Grimm keeping an eye out for any hostiles. "Do you think Jaune's alright?" Pyrrha asks quietly as she comes up to me. I glance at her before looking at the others to see they aren't really focusing on us.

"I'm sure he's fine. Cardin may be a jerk but it's not like he's going to purposely get him killed."

All of a sudden we hear the roar of an Ursa break the silence we are in. Everyone begins looking around at the noise. "Did you guys hear that?" Ruby asks concerned as she gets up.

"Oh no. Please don't be…" I begin to hope it's not what I think it is. The thought is interrupted though as members of team CRDL come frantically running out of the woods past us.

"Ursa! Ursa!" Russel yells in a panic while pointing behind him, which leads him to run into Yang.

"it is." I groan.

"What?!" Yang loudly demands after she was completely unfazed by his collision into her. She wastes no time in picking him up by the front of his shirt and asking, "Where?"

"Back there! It's got Cardin!" He quickly says.

' _Cardin?!_ ' "Oh no." I mutter.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha says on why we're worried.

"Yang! You and Blake, go get Professor Goodwitch!" Ruby goes into leader mode as she begins giving us our orders. Yang drops Russel and both she and Blake nod before following out leader's order. "Weiss, Ethan, with me!" We nod as well as we ready our weapons.

"You two, go with them! There could be more!" Pyrrha too orders Ren and Nora to do the same in getting our instructor.

Thankfully the members of CRDL don't notice Shadow and Raven behind a tree as Russel gets up and runs scared out of his mind with his teammates. "Go with them. Make sure to warn them if they get ambushed." I instruct Shadow and Raven to do, in which they nod as Raven flies into the tree line while Shadow maneuvers between the trees. "Let's get moving." Pyrrha, Weiss, Ruby and I begin running in the direction that Russel pointed to.

We don't have to run far through the trees though as Cardin is attempting to run from the following Ursa. It leaps up over its prey and claws him away, stopping him from running. He manages to keep his Aura up so he didn't take any lasting damage from the hit but he's been thrown onto his back. He tries to get up and crawl away.

"Crap! Crap, crap!" I can hear Cardin's frantic voice as we move past more trees until we make it clear enough for us to see everything as a whole.

"Oh, no." Pyrrha says as we stop and take in the scene. Jaune is off to the side while Cardin is at the mercy of the Grimm with red sap covering his breastplate. _'Explains why it's focusing him down.'_ We watch as the Ursa, a massive one at that with lots of bone plating covering its body along with large spikes jutting out of its back, leans over its helpless victim, raising its paw and swiping it down... only to be blocked by Jaune's shield, Crocea Mors. We look in awe at the last minute save Jaune did for Cardin of all people. He struggles to defend a stunned Cardin from the Grimm's attempts to lean on him. Weiss and I get ready to intervene as she lifts Myrtenaster and I get ready in engage Razor's Revolt as we prepare to go help.

"Wait!" Pyrrha stops us from moving in to help. Since for whatever reason she doesn't want us to go, we simply stand down and watch.

Jaune takes the shield out from the Ursa's paw and slashes at its stomach, causing it to lash out and try to crush him. He rolls out of the way of the attack and as it tries to hit him again, he jumps over its swipe at his feet. However he is unprepared for when it launches a claw strike at him in midair, nailing him as he's sent tumbling back. He lands and rolls several feet away but I can't help but smile at his determination as he is immediately back on his feet and passes Cardin as he charges again. Still the Ursa knocks Jaune back behind it when he tries to do a leaping attack. Once he gets up though, he looks at his shield and grimaces. From my spot, I think I can see his scroll and a hint of red on his screen. _'His Aura's low. He can't take many more hits.'_ That doesn't stop him though as both he and the Ursa ready themselves for another clash against each other.

With a yell, they charge at each other with the intent to kill one another. Just as they are about to attack though, Jaune leaves himself open as he goes to attack the Ursa. At the same time, the claw swipe comes in that will surely kill him what with his low Aura. Before I can even think to intervene, something catches my eye and stops me. Jaune's shield begins to glow a little with a black field around it. Suddenly his shield moves up, right in the path of the Ursa's attack. The claw hits the shield head-on, making Jaune crouch as he deflects the hit and pushes his shield back up, whilst swinging his blade right through the Ursa's neck. In a loud tearing noise of flesh and bone, his sword cuts clean through and off comes its head. We all watch in amazement as the head falls to the ground followed by its body. "Whoa." I mutter at how good that was. Still, I'm perplexed on how it happened. _'What was that black glow?'_ I look to the others to ask if they saw it but as I see Pyrrha's hand glow the same black color, I make the connection.

"Uhhh… What?" Ruby asks, noticing it too.

"How did you…?" Weiss asks as well, equally amazed as the rest of us.

"Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs, Ethan…" She trails off on her explanation as she looks at me, in which I just shrug. _'Even I don't know my semblance.'_ "… I don't know, but… My Semblance is polarity." She answers.

"Whoa, you can control poles…" Ruby doesn't understand what she means.

"What? No Ruby."

"No, you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism!" Weiss clarifies what Pyrrha meant by polarity.

"Magnets are cool, too…"

"Very cool." I say. _'Control over metal and magnets… wow.'_ Pyrrha turns around and starts to leave.

"Wait, where are you going?" Weiss asks.

"Yeah! We gotta tell them what happened!" Ruby says but Pyrrha simply smiles back at them.

"We could… Or perhaps we could just keep it our little secret?" She proposes and walks. Not seeing any fault in that, we don't argue as she walks away again. Ruby, Weiss and I smile to each other in an unspoken understanding and walk as well from a bruised Jaune as he sheathes his weapon. Once we're past more trees, I stop and look back at them from behind a tree to see what's happening.

Cardin, who is still covered in sap, looks up at Jaune as his savior offers a hand. Even though he was an ass to him, I smirk at the offer Jaune gives him. Cardin smiles as he takes it and is lifted back up on his feet. "Holy crap, Jaune!" He somewhat praises Jaune for his work in protecting him.

"Don't ever mess with my team - my friends - ever again." Jaune firmly threatens him as Jaune stares Cardin dead in the eye. "Got it?" He demands. Cardin himself though, if you can believe it, looks intimidated, possibly even apologetic as he stares at the guy he thought was so pathetic before all this. With his order spoken, Jaune turns and walks away from a frozen Cardin. They still don't see me, and they won't as I begin my walk back to where everyone else, a smile on my face at the backbone my friend has gained.

* * *

It's the next day after the field trip. Professor Goodwitch is none the wiser about what really happened in the forest. While we all played it off like it took us some time to find them, Jaune and Cardin returned making it up that they had to work together to take down the Ursa after Cardin spilled some sap on him. Seeing the threat passed, she didn't push and simply took us all back to the academy since we filled our quota's.

Thing is though, she was quite cross with the idea of how Cardin's team simply up and abandoned him to deal with the Ursa while another member of a team had to be the one to help him. Because of that, she has something special planned for them.

"As you all may know, as a team, working together can mean the difference between life and death out in the real world. Since team CRDL displayed a poor means of teamwork on the field trip yesterday, I have decided for them to participate in a battle for today to show all of you how a team is supposed to operate… as well as to evaluate them." She says the last part as she sends a glare to the team down on the combat floor. They flinch under her gaze before she turns around and stares at the rest of us in the stands. "In order to do this, they will go up against an opponent that I feel he will be up to the task, such as per the terms of his enrollment."

'… _Why do I have a VERY bad feeling about—'_

"Ethan Wright."

' _WHY AM I RIGHT?!'_ "Huh?!" I ask a little too loudly for my tastes as she calls my name. The others somewhat have looks of surprise as well on their faces.

"You will be their opponent for this engagement. Please step into the ring." She gestures to the arena behind her. I stare at her for a few seconds with my lips slightly parted in surprise. I quickly turn to my friends around me as we look at each other with incredulous looks until I slowly begin to stand up.

"Uhhhh, okaaaaay." I hesitantly agree as make my way to the stairs and into the arena where my opponents are. As I walk I take note of Jaune's face as I pass by him and see the worried look he has. I may be good but I haven't really taken on an actual team before, and when I beat Cardin's team back in the cafeteria I kind of was expecting it. Now it's going to be full on combat and the odds are not with me. I wish to say otherwise but in fact it didn't take me long to get down onto the arena floor with CRDL on one side and I on the other. All the while, I can almost feel the smiles and grins CRDL has on the idea that they'll basically be able to get their revenge on me after some of the stuff I did. I'd be lying if I said I was slightly nervous about this all. "Uhhhhh, professor?" I call up to her. "I remember the conditions that I agreed to for joining this school year… but this seems a little…"

"Much?" Blake finishes what I was going to say.

"Yes, that." I agree before looking at her still in the stands with the others. "I mean, for one thing its four on one. I'm good but… I'm skeptic on the odds." I calmly try to explain to her why this doesn't seem like a good idea, especially for me.

"No Mr. Wright. In your case, it's four on three." As soon as she says that, my eyes widen and I can see my friends perk up at what she means. CRDL though is just confused at the different number stats.

"Th-three… ma'am?" I ask to make sure I heard her correctly.

She nods with a slight smirk, "You heard me, Ethan. You can't keep them a secret forever. You may have already told your friends and teammates, but the rest of the student body has to know to avoid confusion… and I think now would be the perfect time to reveal them, and show us how well you fight with them." Her words merit some logic to them but that doesn't immediately make me comfortable to showing everyone my ability. It was one thing with my friends and teammates, they I can trust, but others…

"Don't worry Ethan!" Jaune suddenly speaks out loudly. All eyes turn to him as he begins to cheer him on. "It doesn't matter what happens! Your friends will help you no matter what happens!"

"Jaune…" I mutter in slight awe at his declaration.

"That's right! Team JNPR's got your back!" Nora too says as she jumps to her feet and gives me a thumbs up. Ren and Pyrrha nod as well, backing what their saying.

It brings a smile to my face at their willingness to still help me even if things take a turn for the worst. "Yeah! C'mon man! Take them down with everything you got!" Yang excitedly yells with a grin as she throws some punches in front of her.

"Get 'em! Show those jerks who's boss and bring glory to team RWBEY!" Ruby loudly cheers me on as well. Without a doubt, seeing both my own team and another fully on board with it, I give them a firm nod as my confidence has been restored.

"Alright then," I mutter as I jerk my head to the sides, popping the bones to loosen me up. "Let's do this." I extend my right hand in front of me and concentrate. CRDL looks on confused as they watch my Aura swirl around my hand as usual for what I'm about to do. Once it's done, I extend my left arm outwards, further making my opponents confused.

It's only when a black blur flies out from behind me that everyone, save for those who know about my specialty, flinches and backs up almost. Raven goes ahead and lands on my arm and I can see the look of fear and surprise on everyone's faces. Except my friends who bare grins. Shadow stalks out from behind me to my right and glares at our opponents in a silent growl, making them recoil again.

"Wha-What is that?!"

"Idiot! Don't you see their Grimm?!"

"I know I see that but he's controlling them?!"

"That's…. not possible." The members of team CRDL go back and forth at the image they see of me surrounded by my Grimm-like allies. Shadow meanwhile stalks just a little further ahead away from me and Raven and it doesn't go unnoticed.

"C'mon guys! We've dealt with Grimm before! This'll be a piece of cake!" Dove boasts as he holds up his sword and meets Shadow half way.

"Wait!" Cardin tries to stop his teammate but he's too focused on the idea of this small Grimm being anything less than a threat, no more dangerous than the usual ones they face out in the field.

While Shadow slowly stalks up, Dove stomps forward and seeing as theirs no acts of aggression from Shadow, he brings his sword over his head and slams it down onto Shadow, fully expecting his Grimm opponent to be killed outright.

*CLANG*

Unfortunately for him, he's facing MY Grimm. My opponents stare surprised as they see Shadow's tail extend from behind him and form a reflective sheen around it before taking the sword strike head on. Dove keeps his sword pressed against the sudden blade-like piece he's facing off against.

*Snap*

Before he can think to mount a proper offense, or a defense nonetheless, I snap my fingers, making him look up at me. His eyes stay on me for only a second before he sees Raven doing something on my arm. He is completely unprepared though as she whips her wings forward sharply, followed by dozens of small hardened feather projectiles being sent through the air right at Dove. The assuming huntsman-in-training quickly pulls his arms up in a mock defense but it's too late. Having just a second to flare up his Aura, the feathers hit him hard. Many streak past him but most impact against his body, making them deflect off his barely Aura covered body but that doesn't last long. The feathers impact hard and before he can try to right himself, he's sent flying back through the air and is completely knocked out of the arena, or more specifically he's knocked into the wall as several feathers pin his clothing and outline his body to the wall. It also doesn't help that a buzzer can be heard.

"And now it's even." The professor tiredly states. In this setup, we have two means of winning: either by draining their Aura to the red, or knocking them out of the battle area of the arena we are in. In my case, I did both. She turns around and starts addressing the rest of the class. "As you can see student's, blindly charging in against your opponent when you don't know everything about them, or you assume you know, can and WILL get you killed in a real-life combat scenario. Now team CRDL has lost one of their members and now its even in terms of numbers, when they originally had the advantage. Remember this so you too don't come to the same disadvantage." She turns back to us on the combat floor and regards us, mostly CRDL, with a glare. "Now if you would please let me begin the match in the first place, then we can get started."

"Sorry." We all apologize to her and before properly getting into our combat stances. Raven is perched on my left arm with Shadow ready to pounce on my right and the other team of three is in similar positions. Once its shown that we all are ready and waiting to get this done, we wait with abated breaths as our views focus on each other and for the signal to start.

"Begin."

Sending a mental command to my duo, they engage their targets before they can make a plan. Raven immediately jumps into the air before she sends a flurry of feathers toward Russel. He brings his daggers up and blocks the hits better than his fallen teammate did since he anticipates them. As soon as he brings his weapons down he brings them right back up as Raven streaks towards him. A loud 'clang' can be heard as her hardened wings impact him and send him sliding back away from his teammates.

At the same time, Shadow pounces quickly and Sky has barely enough time to pull up his halberd to block Shadow's bite as the force slides him back a foot. Shadow stays latched onto the shaft of his halberd for a second as they struggle until Sky swings him around and sends him flying back to my side of the arena.

Meanwhile with those two now engaged, I focus my efforts on their team leader. I don't know the exact strength that those two have but if anything, I can have Shadow and Raven distract or possibly take them down long enough for me to whittle the biggest threat down to size. Cardin may be mostly brawn but that brawn can deal a lot of damage when he lands his hits. With his remaining teammates occupied, I move in so he can focus on me and not on backing his teammates up, which he should do but I think the temptation to put a beatdown on me will keep him from doing that. I charge forward with both Razor and Revolt ready to fight as he focuses me down with both hands on his mace.

Once I get within range, he focuses his power on a massive strike on me from overhead. That wasn't exactly something I was expecting so as soon as I can, I bring both my blades up and activate the helicopter function and get them spinning as fast as they can. Our weapons connect head on and the both of us recoil harshly from the hit. Because of the spinning, Cardin's mace jerks back hard from the recoil and is slightly stunned from the deflect. However that doesn't detract from the force he put into the attack knocks me on my back. "Arrrrh!" I grunt from the force exerted on my body and take a second to catch myself. Looking, I grimace as the screen above us reads his hit and my block almost took out half my Aura. "Damn." I groan at the massive hit at my Aura levels before I look forward. Cardin has already regained his senses and charges at me with swing coming in from low to his left to high right. I barely manage to set my blades back to normal before I roll forward under the hit so it misses me and leaves him open. I come into a stand with both my weapons ready before I step towards his opened back.

If his Aura hadn't taken the hit, that's what would have happened to his back. He grunts as my blades hit him from behind and does a wide swing back to hit me but its slow so I'm able to duck underneath and attack his front now. I launch a series of quick but small slashes and jabs towards him chest while he's open. I'm too quick for him to properly defend against me as I slowly whittle him down. After almost a dozen hits, I set the serrated function and bring both my blades down to attack him at once. He brings his left arm up in time to block my hits, saving himself from a massive blow to him but also leaving a nasty gash through his arm braces. The block is enough for him to swing his mace one-handed into an uppercut strike towards me. I barely have time to block myself from his hit but no time to steel myself. My feet lift off the ground as I'm sent flying into the air from the blow. I land on my back on the ground a little ways away from him and let out a grunt of pain as I stare at the screen.

Cardin's Aura has been reduced to 50% but mines down to 40% while the rest of his teammates are almost out as well. To my right I see and Raven still engaged in fighting with Raven coming in for another pass-by slice. With one of his daggers, and using lightning Dust in his weapon, he deflects her attack with his Dust infused weapon. Normally a normal block would have let her break through his defense and finish him, but I watch as the lightning addition sends shocks through her whole body, making her let out a shriek of pain as her body contorts.

Before I can help, I watch as he uses his other dagger and sends right through her body in an overhand stab downwards before hitting the ground. "Ha! Gotcha!"

"Nooo!" I hear Ruby yell but I'm only focusing on him as I watch Raven slowly disappear into black smoke.

Anger courses through me as I jump onto my feet and charge at him. The stomping on my feet gets his attention as he turns around only to be met by my angered charging form. "Raaaah!" I roar as I head butt him head on. I ignore the sting before I take advantage of his stunned state and let loose a flurry of strikes at him. My hits come quick and hard before my body starts twirling around in front of him, slicing and cutting his Aura down faster than he can defend against me. Once I stop, he regains himself just long enough for him to pull a trigger on his right dagger and it activates one of his dust compartments, similar to Weiss's rapier but it only adds just the dust element to the blade and that's it. He activates the fire dust and brings it down on top of me.

' _That's not going to work.'_ I bring my left arm up and bash the weapon away, fire particles sparking away as our weapons impact each other but do no damage to me. I quickly curl my right arm around his head and pull him down towards me as my leg comes up to intercept him. I can hear him let out a loud grunt of pain as my knee lifts up and slams into his gut. As soon as I let him go, he begins to fall to the ground after I almost made him lose his lunch or lose his breath.

He doesn't get the chance to as I twirl around, going low to the ground and launch my right leg outwards into a low kick. Instead of falling to the ground, he's now sent flying backwards several feet until he rolls on the ground and off the ring. Another buzzer goes off but whether or not he would have been sent out of bounds wouldn't have mattered as my last two attacks depleted him into the red. I smile at having taken him out of the game.

My eyes widen as another buzzer goes off and I whirl around. I see two things that get my notice and slight dread. First, I see the weakly limping Sky walk his way out of the ring. Second… Shadow is on the ground, panting tiredly as he gives weak whines with Cardin above him… mace raised overhead.

He brings his mace down on Shadow's back. A sickening crunch can be heard as it breaks both him and cracks the ground around them. Cardin then pulls his mace back and proceeds to hit Shadow like a golf ball right out of the ring. "Oh no!" I hear Nora yell as he's hit.

"Shadow!" Ruby yells as well once he hits the wall harshly. He slumps to the ground with a thud and lays there.

I stare at him as he slowly lifts his head and stares directly into my eyes before he drops back unmoving. Like with Raven, I watch as he too disappears into a cloud of smoke. "HA!" Cardin's yell knocks me out of my thoughts. I shift my focus back to him as he swings his mace around a few times before letting it rest on his shoulder. "Alright, got rid of your pets! Now its just you and me." He threatens and slowly makes his way towards.

My hands tighten on the handles of my blades with anger as I too make my way towards him. Like before we engage in combat and although he may be tougher, I'm faster. Now that I don't have to worry about anyone else, my undivided attention is focused solely on this jackass and ohhhh am I angry. As soon as we get within range, he tries to go for an uppercut attack but I lean back as he misses. That missed attack his downfall as while he's open, I attack. Getting in nice and up close, like before I begin throwing different combos of attacks and slices all around him. After a moment, he manages to amount some form of defense by pulling up his mace to shield himself from my attacks. That's all he can do at this point as my attacks come in too fast for him to properly fight back against. He can simply only hold the shaft of his weapon up and defend as my hits lower his Aura to my own and slowly past it.

Unfortunately he wisens up and after one particular hit, he pushes back against me, nearly throwing me off balance. He capitalizes on this by quickly swinging around and sending his mace in a wide arc towards my legs. I'm suddenly weightless for a second before I slam onto the ground on my back and having the air knocked out of my lungs. While I struggle to regain my breathing, I barely have enough time to see the large blunt weapon swing down towards me before I roll to the side. The mace impacts just where I was, cracking the floor before it picks back up and comes at me again.

I roll along the ground as Cardin continues to slam his mace into where I was before. "Hold still already!" He yells angrily and having fed up enough of it, he grabs my foot and stops me cold.

"Arh!" With a yank, I groan as it feels like my leg is almost yanked out of its socket because of how he pulls me. Laying on my back I can look up as he stares at me with a grin that he's got me right where he wants me.

"Gotcha!" He yells and brings his mace down on top of me. In that moment I can hear multiple gasps from the stands at my defeat but I'm not done yet. I wait for the moment when he swings his mace down towards me and roll the top half of my body away. His weapon slams into the floor and before he can pull it back I roll over and wrap myself around the shaft of his weapon and arm. "Wha-?! Get off!" He demands angrily as he tries to tear me off with his other arm.

*Smack*

My answer to his demand is a foot to the face as I begin launching several kicks to his face in rapid succession. I only deplete his Aura by a little before he actually starts moving his head to avoid my kicks. He also decides he doesn't want me hanging out on him as he lifts his arm with me on it before slamming me into the ground. I grunt as my legs slip off him but my arms stay latched on. This only further angers him as I'm still holding on even by just a little. "I said… get…" He drags me along the ground for a second before swinging it forward. "OFFFF!" He yells furiously and the amount of power he puts into the swing finally makes me let go, straight into the air.

I tumble through the air a few times until I manage to orient myself just well enough for me to get my bearings. There is no way I can land in the ring so its inevitable that I'm going to get a ring out. _'But not without taking you with me.'_ Just before I start falling to the ground, I curl both my arms down in preparation. "Take… THIS!" I yell and through both my blades towards him as I begin falling to the ground without anyway for me stop myself. I land on one of the desks hard before rolling over and breaking some chairs behind them as I hit the ground.

Even in my injured dazes state, I can distinctly hear two buzzers going off. _'Good… got him.'_ I weakly think from my spot on the ground. "Ahhhh… ow." I groan as I lay on top of the destroyed chairs.

"… Are you okay?" I hear a familiar voice ask me even in my slightly dazed and battered state.

"Aaaahhh… no." I answer groaning before I try to push myself up. "But I'll live."

"Here. Let me help you up." Hands grab purchase on my body as I'm helped to my feet. Once I manage to stand and use the long desk as support, I find my helper and I smile.

"Ohh, thanks Velvet." I thank the bunny faunus for her help.

"No problem." She returns the smile.

"Ethan!" I loud voice speaks from behind me, causing me to turn and see who. Weiss quickly comes up to me as she stares at me with a very worried expression. "Are you okay?! You're not hurt are you?" She asks in concern for me after seeing my slightly battered form but I smile nonetheless.

"Nah, I'm good. A little rough around the edges but nothing that requires serious care." I ease her of her worry for me as I roll my shoulders a little.

"That's good then. I've been meaning to get you to train using my fighting style soon and I don't want you to be bed ridden for the opportunity." She lightly scolds me but the smirk means its not really meant to hurt, just that it would a real inconvenience for the opportunity to slip by.

"Of course. I look forward to it." I reply with a nod. As soon as I take a step though, I look down to the arena floor to see Cardin lying on his back with Razor and Revolt few feet in front of him. Taking a different route, I head into the arena albeit a little slower than I preferred because I was limping a little but eventually I make it. As I pass by my blades I pick them up and store them before walking over to the groaning Cardin.

As soon as I step close to him, he opens his eyes and looks up at me. "Ughhhhh… what do you want?" He tiredly and in an annoyed tone asks me.

For a while, I simply stare at his downed form until I crouch next to his head and look him dead in the eyes. I speak in a low tone so no one else can hear me. "I know what you blackmailed Jaune with." His eyes widen at that statement and my neutral stare down at him. He looks confused then as I actually give him a smile. "And frankly, with how much power you had over him, I can respect that. I mean, it's not often you get important info like that and are able to use it against someone. Dick move but, I respect your use of it." I tell him. I've been to a lot of places all over Remnant and I've watched plenty of instances where blackmail was used to great lengths. Heck even one guy saw prudent to try to blackmail me when he found out about Shadow and Raven. Threatened to tell the city guard in whatever place I was passing through about me. I don't really remember where nor do I care to because at the time I kind of feigned ignorance of the whole thing when he did tell them. Obviously without proof he wasn't taken seriously and lost face with people there considering he was threatening a child at the time. _'I think I was… 14… I think.'_ I mentally shrug at that. Still before I left, I went ahead and had Shadow and Raven give him the mother of all scares when he was sleeping, just as an incentive for him to not pursue me.

"Really? Wow, thanks." Cardin replies with a slight smile of relief. As another gesture, I extend my hand to him to take.

He takes my hand and lets me pull him into a sit before he begins standing up. However just before he can stand up, my grip on his hand tightens considerably, making him wince as I make it look like he's going into a crouch as he stands up. "But make no mistake… I respect the opportunity you took, but you messed with my friend. Do that again, to anyone else… and I'll make it so you can't ever become a huntsman." I whisper the threat into his ear before yanking him onto his feet. He grunts again from the rough treatment before I let him go and pat his shoulder in fake good nature. "Physically." I say one last time before I start walking back to my friends, this time not with a limp.

"Ethan!" All my friends start crowding around me once I make it to them as the rest of CRDL begin helping their leader up. "Are you alright?" Ruby worriedly asks me.

"Yes, yes I am." I answer in slight annoyance at having been asked a third time if I'm alright. I know they're worried about me but still. "Don't worry about me."

"Ethan…" Pyrrha speaks up as she comes close to me. She talks in a sad tone before laying a hand in a somewhat comforting gesture. "I'm sooo sorry… about Shadow and Raven." She finishes saying in a hurt tone, saddened to see what had happened to them in the arena.

"… What are you talking about?" I ask somewhat confused, which surprises her and the others a little. "Shadow's over there." I nod my head behind everyone. As one they all turn around to see the wolf Grimm chilling out on top of one of the desks, one of his front paws hanging off the side as he lays there. Blake quickly takes a few steps away from him before putting Yang between herself and him. _'Seriosuly? The others have already accepted them. How long until you finally do too?'_ Annoyed at the continued caution, I move on. "And Raven's over there." I nod in another direction. This time they see Raven perched on the railing for the arena to prevent people from falling in. I give them incredulous looks at what they thought had actually happened in the arena. "What? You thought I would have lost them so easily to these guys?" I skeptically ask them as I thumb towards CRDL as they finally make it out of the arena. They look like they're going to retort but a growl from Shadow puts that to rest. "Seriously its going to take a lot more than that to make me lose them permanently." When I say that with confidence, they appear relieved to see that my Grimm are alright. I'll admit, the first time I lost them, I thought it was permanent but soon after they were able to come back and still be with me. Handy.

"Well," Professor Goodwitch begins to say as she walks up to us, patting Raven as she passes by. "I guess there isn't much more to say than good work Mr. Wright. You showed exceptional skill in the fight and I'm sure you'll make an excellent huntsman eventually." She says and I smile and nod in return

"Thank you very much, ma'am. This was… an elightening experience." I reply. It's not often I was going to take on a full-fledged team myself and while I was worried at first, my teams overall support pushed me to fight as hard as I can. Even though, it ended in a tie, I'm still proud of my performance.

"As it should be, for everyone involved." She drifts her view from me and my friends to team CRDL, considering if they had properly planned on how to take me down, then they could have ganged up on my Grimm, taken them down one by one before focusing me. Seeing as how one of them immediately was taken down at the beginning, that kind of cemented how things would turn out. "Nonetheless, I think that's enough for today. Good job everyone. You may go now." She dismisses class as she walks away while tapping some commands on her Scroll tablet.

Seeing as class is done, my body relaxes as I begin making my way to the doors. "Good. Let's go. I could sleep for hours." I say as I walk up the stairs to the doors out of the room with everyone else following, including some other students curious about my following Grimm.

"Sorry to disappoint Ethan." Blake says as she falls in behind me.

"Why?"

"Because don't we have Doctor Oobleck next?"

"Arhhhhhh!" I loudly groan as I my legs give out and I fall to the ground. "Whyyyyyyy." I let out a muffled moan as I lay on the floor just in front of the door. _'Seriously?! I already feel tired as it is when I sit through his class! I can't deal with this now!'_ All the complaining in my head is useless in the end.

* * *

Professor Glynda Goodwitch stares at the group of students that begin making their way out of the room. After picking up Ethan of course. "I'll admit, I wasn't too sure about them…" She comments to herself as she brings up the combat readings from the battle.

Five Aura readings can be seen across the screen. Four of which are red with one barely a sliver of yellow left before turning to red. _'If he hadn't gotten thrown out, he could have officially won it.'_ She thinks before swiping away the results and turning off her Scroll. "But in fact, I think this might be an interesting year." With that last statement, she pulls out her riding crop and begins fixing the arena. "Albeit, possibly a messy one."

* * *

 **Just wanna go ahead and say I'm sorry everyone for the long wait. Lots of things kind of got my attention, shifted my focus, made me feel like crap or otherwise preoccupied a chunk of my time so some days I got easily distracted and didn't put as many words down as I would have preferred.**

 **Still, I hope this long I-didn't-anticipate-to-be-as-long chapter makes up for the few months I've been quiet about this story. I plan to do at least one more chapter before moving on and getting to work on my other stuff as well.**

 **Another topic I'd like to speak my mind about: the series. Pretty much I am all caught up with the show and saw just how things progressed for everyone we love (and hate) in the show. I'm very excited for what else Rooster teeth has planned for the next season of RWBY and I know its going to be epic and possibly emotional with gut-wrenching feelings. Probably also going to keep an eye out for other shows they'll be unveiling, mostly that gen:lock show. Looks cool.**

 **Cf96:** Thanks.

 **William Hoenicke:** Glad you like it. My progress with the story may be slow but I can assure you I plan to not abandon nor put it on hiatus anytime soon. His ability was just an oddity that I figured might garner attention and I'm glad it did for a fair number of people.

 **As I said before, apologies for the months delay and hopefully I won't take as long in the next set of chapters. Although, just as a heads up, keep an eye out for possibly a new story in the coming weeks. Not sure exactly but still. Anyways, fave, follow, review, don't, whatever you want really. Just please go ahead to have a wonderful day and as always, have fun reading.**


	10. 9 Weiss - Myrtenaster

"Keep yourself still. Don't slouch. Make sure the tip is on point where you want it to be." Weiss instructs me.

"Got it." Days have passed since my fight with CRDL and to be honest, things are better than I initially thought. As obvious as it was, the news spread like wildfire about the one student that could control Grimm and I've kind of been bugged about the whole thing since then. In order to properly get the student body acclimated to Grimm creatures being in the school, it was suggested I let them roam free so everyone knows what my Grimm look like. I was also only supposed to do that only with assurance that they won't cause any harm or trouble to anyone. I replied by making it so that MY Grimm were docile and smart so the only way they would attack someone is for them to be attacked or be threatened in any way.

Whenever a bunch of people begin questioning me about how I'm able to have Raven and Shadow at my beck and call, I just went ahead and told them it was my semblance when in reality its not. I could say they aren't a part of my semblance but I don't want to tell everyone my family's history. Not really in the mood either to explain to everyone by backstory, especially to randoms. My friends of course are the exception to that, my team especially.

So while some people are scared and worried about my pets, some prefer to give them a wide berth but not really make conversation per say to them. Others also don't care about them and focus on their own things while the rest are genuinely curious about them. So sometimes they'll return and have a small entourage follow them out of curiosity. I can pretty much feel the annoyance they feel from it all but in the end I'm sure it'll work out well enough.

Even so, it's about time I get to working on my cooperation with my teammates, which brings me to where I am right now. For a bit of peace and quiet, Weiss and I find ourselves on the outskirts of the Forever Fall forest closest to the academy. That way we can work and train to our hearts content without anyone bothering us, especially considering everyone wants to know about my ability. As per our arrangement before, I am currently working on the proper techniques and positioning needed to make the art of using a rapier both beautiful and deadly at the same time. While holding her sword was nice, I was worried I would possibly break it and offered to using possibly a training sword instead.

" _When we go into combat, should the situation call for it you won't be using a training sword. You could be using MY sword. During your training, I want you to be as familiarized with Myrtenaster as I am. It's speed, weight, how it moves through the air and what it feels like to strike your enemies. Besides, I know my weapon inside and out. I'm pretty sure a brute like you won't be able to 'accidentally' break it."_

While her words just might have stung just a little bit, there is some truth to them. My style is up close and personal with powerful hits. From what I can tell, hers is around movement, speed with precisions strikes. She doesn't stick right up against her opponent to continue the assault against them and usually opts to strike, pull back, size them up before going in for another strike. This is perfect for her because she can use her Glyphs to help her control and move herself across the battlefield with relative ease. Since I don't have Glyphs to help me move, I'm gonna have to somewhat use my own speed and movement to try to attack my enemies.

For now though I'm simply getting used to the feel and movement of myself using this weapon. Kind of hard to considering my fighting style and weapons I've been using for nearly my entire life beforehand. By that way, I've been trying to do some thrusting dashes with her weapon of my own skill in order to gauge how well I can do. Even doing some stationary attacks if I ever take on other human opponents up close. After a few minutes of getting the feel of the thrusting attacks, I pull back and take in a few deep breaths.

"Well, I can safely say that you're doing surprisingly well in adapting to my weapons fighting style." Weiss compliments me as she comes up. After being drilled into my head about the proper stances and footwork best used with her rapier, I'm starting pick up on how to fight well enough.

"Glad you think so." I reply while still in my ready to thrust position, whereas the weapon is held close to my chest and the blade is out ready to strike.

"Go ahead and try to some attacks around yourself and maybe some trees. Give yourself a feel for how your going to move and fight at the same time." I give a small nod at the recommendation and prepare myself to let out some attacks.

I do a thrust ahead of me quick and forcefully. The point of my weapon cuts through the air before I retract and go for another strike but lower. Once I pull myself back, I thrust forward but pretend I get deflected away. I quickly right myself before turning around and going for a slash followed by a stab. This goes on for several long minutes as I constantly get a feel for how the weapon moves to me. I even do a couple jumps and dodges so I can gauge how well I can right myself back into a fighting position. I need some work as I'm not making it work as well as I'd prefer but considering the original owner uses Glyphs to help, I'm making progress, and so does Weiss. I finish off my moves by jumping close to a tree and proceeding to launch a rapid series of stabs and punctures to the trunk of a tree. What makes it more visceral is the fact that each of the stabs come accompanied with sap that begins to flow from the holes. I slash a couple times along the tree before I reel back, concentrate my Aura through the weapon and with a yell, I stab the tree.

This time the long thin blade of the weapon goes easily enough through the bark until around the half way mark of the weapon. Many leaves fall from above around me from the force of me hitting the tree. A quick jerk of the weapon and I manage to wedge it out of place before pulling it the rest of the way out. Thankfully the tight seal that was created from the stab let the blade be cleaned of any debris or sap that may have been collected on it. Even so, I pull the weapon vertically up in front of me where I closely examine it before pressing my fingers on both sides of the blade and running my fingers tightly along it, collecting anything on it before flicking it clean.

"Very nice." Weiss compliments as she walks up to me with a smirk. "You're doing well in making your own fighting style with my weapon. From what I see, it looks almost as if you won't have trouble taking on any of your enemies should the need arise."

"Thank you. I'm taking to it well enough." I reply and casually walk up to her. "So teach, what else do you got for me?" I ask, just a little bit eager to get to know other ways to master this weapon.

"Well for one, I have to show you how to use the revolving Dust chambers." She points to the revolver apparatus embedded in her weapon still in my hand. Its fully equipped with the basic amount and type of Dust because I haven't used that part of it yet. Because of her use of Glyphs, she can make the Dust attack targets from a distance when she uses it. Me though, the only thing I can use it for would be to coat the blade and give an additional boost to my strikes with whatever Dust is used. It's not as simple as that but that's the main gist of it basically. Before she can teach me anymore, the sounds of growling nearby get our attention. A lone Beowolf, nothing too big or spectacular about it, makes its way out of the tree line and stalks up to us. "I thought your pets were supposed to keep the area clear?" She asks.

"They are. I had them patrol far around us so we wouldn't be distracted my nearby fighting. Apparently, one got by them." We are in the middle of the forest, theirs only two of them and from the distance I asked them to focus around, guess I shouldn't be surprised some were able to slip by. I flip the weapon around and grab at the base of the blade where it meets the hilt before offering it to Weiss.

She reaches out to take the weapon but stops just a few inches, then retracts her hand. "No." I look at her confused on why she's declining. She gives me a confident smile. "I think this will be a perfect opportunity for you to put what I taught you to the test."

"Wait, here? Now?" I ask if I'm hearing her correctly. Besides that one time we talked in the forge training area, its only been a couple days of me getting proper lessons in her weapons use and now she wants me to go up against an actual Grimm already.

"Yes. I do. Your going to have to fight them eventually and this seems as good a time as any." She confirms what I heard and while I know I've down alright so far with the weapons use, I'm still not as confident as I'd like.

"Is this really such a good idea?" I ask one last time but I really don't like the smile she has.

"We won't know until you try it, now will we? Better hurry." She nods past me and takes a step back. The sound of a growl and lunge is the only other indicator that I need to be ready right now! I turn around with my weapon with my left hand grasping end of the blade. Because of that, I'm able to hold it firmly and keep the Grimm from tearing into my chest with its outstretched claw. I slide back a foot from the force and push of it before the Grimm begins to lean in a growl, opening its maw wide straight towards me. This gives me a clear view of its deadly sharp teeth as it leans in.

"Crap." I grunt before I quickly pull my weapon up, its claw included as it hits itself and momentarily frees me from the deadlock. I quickly bring my leg up and execute a roundhouse kick straight to the side of its jaw. I can hear the Grimm whine slightly from the hit but it doesn't stay stunned for long as it quickly strikes out with swipe to my head. I quickly duck under its strike before standing up and curling Myrtenaster against me before launching a series of stabs right into its chest. The Grimm lets out a guttural roar of pain as the first two stabs go in mid-way through its chest while the last set only use a few inches of the tip before the beast is already moving away from me. It jumps back several feet and lets out a low angry growl at me as I can see the holes I made in its chest.

Theirs no time for me to do any other assessment of what I need to do before it charges me once again. Seeing it charge me this time instead of when my back was turned, I can better prepare to counter. I stand straight with my weapon held up to my right behind me as I get ready. Because of my attacks, the creature of Grimm is completely angry and fueled by rage so because of that, that tends to make anyone reckless in their attacks. The Beowulf comes in close and moves to hit me with a slice from its right claw. Before it can connect I bring the sword towards it and slice off the appendage in one swipe. The limb flies away as it roars before it tries to hit me with its left claw. With my weapon still outstretched from where its limb once was, I bring the blade down and up on the other side, catching its last attacking appendage before it can hit. Like before, the appendage slices right off and the Grimm lets out another roar of pain mixed anger. Not wanting to let it continue to scream, I bring my free hand up, concentrate a portion of my Aura into it, and launch a palm strike directly into its stomach. The hit shuts the Grimm for a second as it falls to its knees.

*Shink*

Before it can fully fall to the ground though, I thrust the rapier upwards right through the underside of its jaw, right through the skull and out the top. In an instant all means fighting and trying to kill me are completely stopped as the Grimm falls limp against my blade. As the smoke starts to emanate from the body, I rip the blade out and let the body fall to the ground as I step back. Finally I let out a breath of air I didn't know I was holding in. "Very good." Weiss comes up to me as she slowly claps her hands. "See? You were worried about nothing."

I shrug my shoulders and nod slightly. "Yeah, I guess so." I watch as the last of the body disappears and I let myself relax a bit. _'Okay. That was… alright… I guess. Still need more work but at least I have some know-how on taking them out one-on-on—'_

My body freezes. My pupils shrink as my hands clench tightly closed.

"What's wrong?" I still manage to hear her ask but mentally I start to get myself ready. I hold out the handle of her rapier for her to take as she looks on confused.

"Shadow and Raven were just killed." As soon as I say that, her eyes widen and she quickly takes her weapon back before giving me both of mine. As soon as I strap them on, our enemies come out of the woodwork. Classic rule to remember when dealing with Beowolfs: they always travel in packs. Rarely you'll ever find one wandering around alone and more often than not it will have a pack not too far away. Apparently it would seem the one I just killed packs engaged my Grimm and while they killed a good number of them they are still sorely outnumbered. Ergo, that's why we are staring down at least around a dozen Beowolfs that have us surrounded. "Well, this wasn't on the agenda." I comment as I unsheathe my weapons and set them to serrated.

"What was your first clue?" She replies as she takes her stance ready to engage.

"Let's just get this over with quick. We technically aren't supposed to be here remember?" I can't help but be reminded of that little bit. We may be capable of taking on Grimm more than the average person but that doesn't mean we can go just about anywhere even if it is infested with the dark creatures. Beacon academy no doubt doesn't want to send information on some cocky dead huntsmen in trainings next of kin because they wanted to go take on a couple Grimm and ended up running into a whole pack… just like us.

"Yes, I remember." She replies annoyed and the Grimm become more agitated from the waiting. "Just becareful alright? I would prefer to not tell everyone how you died." She coyly replies with I think a smile. I can't tell because we are back to back getting ready to fight but I can almost feel her smile at the gest.

I too smile right back as I reply. "Back at you. Plus I wouldn't like to be known as the guy who got a Schnee killed!" _'Although I think the White Fang would be somewhat alright with me since a good most Faunus still harbor some resentment for the Schnee family.'_ Of course I can't really on that train of thought as one Beowolf lunges at me. We push off each other and move in to engage our enemies. First blood, figuratively, goes to me as I twist myself around a couple times, slicing the Grimm a few times until it falls over dead. As soon as it does, I activate my blades further as two Grimm come on from both sides of me to attack. I sweep my arms from side to side as they come close enough for me to hit them. Their claws tear off as the spinning blades cut them down in one sweep before another sweep cuts open their chests dead.

A couple more Beowolfs try to attack me from above as their dark shadows are the only indication I have that they're going for an aerial attack. I duck low under their swipes before rolling myself backwards to put some distance between them. Once I do they jump towards me to hit me again but I quickly swipe my blades against their legs, cutting them off as they stop in mid-air before falling onto their backs. A slash from my spinning blades while they're down quickly ends them before they can get back up or try to hit me from down low. The fight goes on relatively simple like that in hindsight. Some try to slash and stab me while I simply deflect or dodge their attacks. After felling one more Beowolf, I give a quick glance over to Weiss to see she's already dealt with her enemies quite handedly. For a second she turns around and still sees me having to deal with my own group of Grimm and gets ready to help me out.

That thought is completely thrown away as a particularly loud growl and tearing wood gets our attention. Anther Beowolf, this one much bigger, meaner and downright scarier tears down a tree as it stalks into the open area we are in. Seeing the many additional bone protrusions that it has, as well as the many healed scars on said bones, I already surmise just what it is that we are now dealing with. "Oh come on! An Alpha." I groan as I block a random claw strike before countering the Grimm with a kick to its face. _'Should have known. Every pack has a leader and it was stupid to think this one was different in anyway.'_ "Weiss! We need to—" Whatever I was going to say is halted as I look on surprised at what's on my partner. As it stands, we may be somewhat on the outskirts of the Forever Fall forest but we are still in it and that means the trees are still filled with the sap we gathered last time we were in the forest. The tree that the Alpha tore apart and flung away accidentally splattered several drops of sap on Weiss's dress. She looks down at the stains before looking up at the menacing Alpha. The drops are small enough that not every Grimm is attracted to her but the Alpha is close enough that it can smell the sweetness and wants her. "Weiss." I mutter out her name in worry.

"I got this!" She replies as she readies herself to fight one-on-one with the leader Alpha of this pack of Beowolfs we've been fighting. Before I can even think to try to help her, a Beowolf tries to take me out while I'm distracted. I quickly deflect the claw strike with Razor in my left and follow up with slicing its head off with Revolt. I move all over as much as I can to try to take out the last of these pack members so I can help out Weiss with the Alpha. She's good I know that for sure, but I'd rather not take the chance of her being bested by the creature. After all it is the leader of its pack for a reason. The numbers for mine quickly dwindle but I'm starting to become winded from the continuous fight. My breathing starts to get ragged. _'Damn. This going on for too long. We need to finish this now.'_ While I would like the idea of calling in my friends again, problem is it does take a little bit of my stamina and concentration to bring them in, even more so considering they were killed not even a few minutes ago. The cost may be a little at the beginning but now as my fatigue is starting to set in, I can't afford to waste any of it. After putting some distance between me and the last few of my enemies, I take a glance towards the other fight.

Weiss does a backflip to dodge the Alpha's attack before stopping and launching herself forward, delivering some stabs and slices at the Grimm a few times. The Alpha brings its arms up in defense and takes the hits before lashing its arms outward to try to hit her. Luckily she sees it and ducks back, narrowly avoiding the dual claw slash at her. She continues to duck and dodge backwards as it continues to relentlessly try to hit her. Soon, she ducks forward, making the Alpha miss before she comes up with a backhand slash and slashes a nasty cut into the creature's face, making it roar and recoil as it cradles the wound. She smirks at the wound she inflicted before she takes a few steps back and gets ready for one final strike as she gets into a position ready to launch herself forward. "Whoa!" Unfortunately she takes a misstep over a rock and trips hard. "Arh!" She yelps painfully as she hits the ground hard against a tree.

"Weiss!" I yell as I watch her fall to the ground. Again, my opponents tries to hit me but I quickly block the strike before cutting it down. A quick turn back and I watch as the Alpha has already gotten its bearings and is moving to cut her down while she's on the ground. _'I don't think so!'_ I reel my right arm backwards before launching it straight at the monster. The weapon curves slightly in the air before it strikes the Alpha straight into its back. The Grimm lets out a roar as it tries desperately to dislodge my weapon from its back, completely forgetting about the downed huntress on the ground. She looks in my direction and I to her where I give her a nod. She returns it with a smile before her eyes widen and she pulls up her sword.

"Watch out Ethan!" Accompanied by her warning, with the aid of one of her Glyphs she throws her sword straight at me like a spear. I just barely angle myself out of the way of the speeding projectile as it soars past me and embeds itself right into the chest of a Beowolf trying to sneak up on me. I quickly activate my last weapon before grabbing the handle of Myrtenaster and slicing its chest before ripping the blade out. As soon as I do, I stab into the Grimm's head for a quick kill before kicking it away from me into a couple more of them.

"Here! Take it!" I completely turn around and launch my last weapon at Weiss, making it stab right into the right next to her. For a second she's almost confused but its when she sees the Alpha forget about trying to dislodge my weapon from its back that it refocuses on her again. She barely has enough time to pull my weapon from the ground, activated its helicopter blade function and hold it up as the first strike commences. She does what she can to hold it up as the blades begin spinning but the start up wasn't fast enough as the punches somewhat slow and stop it from fully spinning. That's all she can do right now is hold the weapon up as best she can in a defense from her position on the ground.

I refocus myself back on my opponents as they are the last members of the pack and once they're dealt with, I can back up Weiss and take out the leader. I move forward and begin slicing and cutting one of the Grimm before it can retaliate against me. After launching a devastating stab through its chest, I pull back just as a claw comes up and nearly takes my head off. My Aura flares up for a second as the sharpened bones nearly cut me. Because of that my Aura feels like it's almost completely depleted and I really can't afford to drag this out any longer. With the claw still stretched out, I stab into its arm before grabbing the appendage and pulling the Grimm closer to me where I angle the sword against its chest and run the blade further into its arm and through its chest. I duck as another Beowolf misses and finishes off its friend before I kick it away and rip out the blade from the already dissolving corpse and slice its throat the same time. I end it by stabbing it in the chest several times before stepping back and catching my breath. There is only one more pack member and then all that's left is the Alpha. Speaking of…

"Weiss no!" I yell as the Alpha continues to beat her down with no way for her to mount a proper defense against it. The blades have almost completely stopped by this point and once it's grown frustrated, the Alpha grabs one of the blades and pulls the weapon from her grip and tosses it right at me. I duck as my personal weapon flies over me and stabs one of its blades right into my last opponent. It isn't spinning anymore but its enough as just one blade has stabbed clean through the Beowolfs head and killed it. I quickly examine the kill as it falls before watching as the Alpha rears its claws back to end my partner. "Noooo!"

* * *

Weiss watches in horror as she's now left completely defenseless against the monster right in front of her. All they wanted to do was do a little training in peace and now it turned into them fighting for their lives. As the monster gets ready to hit her, she places her hand on the ground, placing a glyph on the ground. _'Please work.'_ She closes her eyes and waits for what's about to happen.

"Raah!"

*Shink*

Following an angry yell, she hears something slam into the Alpha. Opening her eyes she manages to see the Grimm is barreled away from her and slams into a nearby tree. Following her moment of stunned surprise, a closer look shows Ethan pressed right up against the Alpha, pinning it to the tree with her own personal weapon in hand. The Alpha lets out a growl of pain but doesn't look ready to give up just yet as it stares down angrily at Ethan as it brings its jaw and claws to tear into him.

Unfortunately for it, the familiar sound of Myrtenaster's Dust revolver function spins as Ethan activates one of the Dust compartments. He quickly pushes himself off the body but keeps his hands pressed against the handle and activates it. Weiss's eyes widen as she watches electricity course through the entirety of the Grimm's body, making it roar, convulse and jerk from the lightning Dust being injected directly into its body. Ethan grits his teeth as he keeps the weapon and in doing so the Grimm pressed against the tree but its tiring after everything else they had to do the whole time here.

After several tense painful seconds for the Grimm, things quiet down as the last of the Dust application wears off and the creature goes limp. As soon as it starts to list to the side, Ethan tears the weapon out and takes a step back, letting the body fall to the ground with a massive thud. The only other sound that can be heard is Ethan's slow ragged breathing as both the students stare at the body, almost waiting for it to get back up and attack them. They both let out breaths of relief as they watch the black smoke start to emanate from the body and it begins to dissolve.

Seeing as the danger has finally passed, Ethan slouches as he visibly relaxes and Weiss lets herself lay against the tree. Ethan calmly walks over to the dissolving body and pulls out one of his weapons before going over and grabbing his last one before walking over to Weiss as he sheathes them. All the while she stares at him as he gathers his stuff before he walks over to her and stands there. They both stare at each other before he smiles and offers him her hand. Returning the smile, she takes his hand and he pulls her up to her feet. "Ahh!" At least she tries to. As soon as she tries to put pressure on her right ankle does she let out a cry of pain and almost fall to the ground.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa!" Ethan quickly grabs her before she collapses and holds her up as she hops on one foot. "You okay?" He asks, worried after hearing her cry of pain.

"Yeah, but…" She begins to try to reassure him but as soon as she puts a little pressure on her foot, she hisses and recoils it back into the air. "Ow. I think I sprained my ankle."

"Really? Aw man." He mutters sadly at the small injury his friend sustained. He takes a quick look around to make sure they are clear before he hands her her sword back. "Here. Hold this."

"Uhh, okay." She replies as she takes her weapon back. "What are you- Hey!" She shouts in surprise as Ethan proceeds to pick her up bridle style in his arms. "What do you think your doing?!" She asks loudly and slightly annoyed at the new position she finds herself in all of a sudden without her consent.

"You wanna walk all the way back to the Academy on your own feet?" He asks staring right at her.

"…" She doesn't even look at him as the ground seems far more interesting.

"That's what I thought." Seeing as theirs no argument from her, he trudges along a path back to the Academy, being careful with his charge and possibly not trying to attract anymore attention. They delve into a small relative silence, neither of them outright moving to engage each other in conversation after the near-death experience they just went through right now. "When we get back, we say we were doing some evading and dodging training using Shadow and Raven and you tripped on a rock." He proposes what their excuse will be.

"Agreed." Weiss doesn't see the problem with that excuse and is on board with it. Although soon she looks down at her clothes to see the red sap droplets on her. "But what about these? If the teachers see this on me, they may accuse us of having gone to this forest." Ethan quickly glances down before looking back up at the other piece of evidence that just may break them of their excuse.

"Maybe… we can say I had some leftover from the field trip and I gave it Raven and Shadow. You know for the training and some was just spilled on you." He proposes they say.

"… That could work." As good excuse as any, besides sneaking into their dorm room for a spare of clothes but the excuses seem the most plausible and best chance for them to work with right now. Plus the fact they are still pretty tired and beat up from the fight so actively sneaking in just doesn't seem like something they are willing to do right now. In any case, they fall back into silence until one of them comes up with something to talk or comment about.

"Hey." He soon gets her attention. "Nice one with that Glyph by the way. Really helped out." He thanks her. Just as the Alpha was going to end her, Weiss was able to conjure up one of her Glyphs close to where Ethan was. It was enough for him to launch himself straight in her direction and save her at the last minute.

"Well, in that moment it was pretty much all I can do to help. Really the only thing I could do in hopes of you helping me." She replies.

"You mean save you?"

"Don't push it."

"Hehehe." He chuckles good heartedly at the banter as they delve back into silence as they continue to make their way back to the Academy. All the while though, Ethan doesn't notice the continued blush that Weiss has while she's being carried, opting to focus on the path back to the learning institution while she's forced to being helped along.

* * *

 **Took longer than I originally thought to do. In fact, I was actually working on the beginning chapter for another story I plan to publish hopefully soon. I don't really have the title set up among some other things but it was just something that was stuck in my head and I just really wanted to go ahead and get into written words already. I don't want to spoil what it is but it involves a recently released game of a series and anime this year. Don't know when I'll publish the story exactly but I guess all I can say really is keep an eye out in the coming days for something new I'll release.**

 **But I'm getting off topic. It looks like Ethan's bonding with the rest of his team is starting to come to fruition. Already he's starting to learn the move set and workings of using Weiss's weapon and fighting style, along with getting close to her. A much better improvement than their first impression on the first day they got to Beacon Academy. Now he's just got to start worrying about other school work and eventually finding the time for the other members of his team.**

 **Cf96:** Thanks. I try my best.

 **Thank you everyone for your support and I'm sorry things have been kind of slow lately for me. My drive for writing has kind of taken a hit lately for whatever reason and so how much content I put down has been relatively little each night in comparison to what I usually do. Stopping altogether isn't an option, not that I want to anyway, as it just makes me anxious to get writing again. Even if it is maybe a few hundred words a day or so so hopefully this slowness won't stay with me for long.**

 **Thank you again. Go ahead and fav, follow, review if you wish, and as always for everyone reading this, have a great day and have fun reading.**


	11. 10 The Stray

Things have been progressing quite well in all honesty. After the fight back in the forest, we were able to head back to the school without any other problems we may have incurred. Our excuses when we got there were believable, from what we can tell, and we were just told to be very careful for future references in our training sessions. The injury Weiss sustained wasn't too severe, just to ice and keep off it as much as possible for a few days until it properly heals. In that time, I made sure to be the one to help her whenever she needed it, especially when going to and fro classes, and carrying her books.

* * *

" _Really, Ethan. This isn't necessary." Weiss comments as she moves along, using a single crutch to make up for the still recovering ankle as she walks next to me_

" _C'mon, Weiss. It's the least I could do to help you, you know?" I reply. While the real reason for her injury wasn't evading an attack from my Grimm but instead from a hostile Grimm, carrying her stuff is the least I could do to help her when the main reason we were in the forest in the first place was to train me. So its for that reason I still feel somewhat responsible for the injury._

" _Mmm, fine. If you insist." She puts up a bravado front in not needing help but deep down, I think she appreciates the gesture nonetheless, if the small smile she has when I'm not looking is anything to go by._

" _Hey you two love birds!"_

" _Ughhh, hello Yang." The two of us moan in despair at the same time as our blond hair brawler teammate comes out from the next hallway and wraps her arms around both of our shoulders, pulling us close. It may have only been a couple days since I've been helping Weiss get around but it was enough for Yang to go ahead and start playing with us at every opportunity. Like now, she hasn't let up in proclaiming the two of us as a couple._

 _It's getting old pretty quick. "Awww, why the long faces? Did you two get into a fight?" I'm not even looking at her but I can feel the grin Yang has as she talks. I roll my eyes._

" _Nooo, nonononooo. It just so happens that as of a few seconds ago I suddenly feel very very annoyed." I feign ignorance of the source. I lean over a little and look at Weiss. "Pray tell Weiss, do you know the reason?" I sarcastically ask her._

" _Why, any number of reasons Ethan. Most likely it might stem from our hair obsessed teammate who has just inserted herself into our midst's." Weiss replies as we start a sort of faux dignified conversation._

" _Hmm, quite right."_

" _Kkh, you two are such nerds." Even through the jabs we through at her, she still has that grin on her face as she continues to have her arms draped around us while we walk._

" _Whatever. So, any reason why you're here with us?" I ask bored._

" _Not particularly. Classes are down so I was heading back to our room when I saw the two of you walking together… as usual."_

" _I have a sprained ankle!"_

" _She has a sprained ankle!" We both yell out annoyed at the continued insinuation that Yang has yet to let up on with us._

" _Surrrre. That's the only reason." She sarcastically say. Thankfully we don't have to worry about her any longer as we come upon our room. "Whelp! We're here now!" She loudly states as she pushes herself off us._

" _Indeed." I say and open the door before gesturing to Weiss. "Ladies first."_

" _Why thank you." Weiss replies as she walks in first. Yang is about to go in next but I but in and walk in next. I can feel the annoyed look she gives the back of my head at the move but moves in regardless._

 _*Slam*_

 _Or she would if we didn't slam the door in her face._

 _*Click*_

 _And Lock it._

" _Wha-?! Oh yeah, very funny you two." We can hear her trying to open the door but finds it locked. "Seriously?! Come already! Open up!" As the thumps and taps of her banging on the door ring out, we simply lay back and catch up on our studying._

* * *

Yang was not happy that we left her out in the hallway for a few hours. It wasn't until the others got out of class and met her that we finally let her, and the others, in. The sheer angry glare that Yang was giving us was crazy. I swear I'm pretty sure I saw her eyes glow red but I can't be sure. In any case, Weiss made a full recovery soon after and things have quieted down a little for us.

Until now.

Apparently, the Vytal Festival has come this time of the year to Vale and as us, Team RWBEY, walk around the streets of the town, we see the different decorations signifying the festival proudly displayed all over where we go. Streamers with colors of red, yellow, and green adorn the place, balloons hung around on display. Even nearby I spot an elderly shopkeeper hanging a giant sign in bright red letters spelling out "WELCOME TO VALE!" out for everyone to see. No doubt it's for all the newcomers heading in from foreign lands and the different kingdoms to see when they get here.

Here's the thing, I've never really heard about the festival myself but a quick lecture from the Heiress has given me all the information I needed. As a show of peace and symbolism to all the kingdoms coexisting, the Vytal Festival is something that happens everyone two years, where one kingdom will hold the event and people from all over from the different kingdoms and provinces can come together and sample, indulge in the various cultures. This time, Vale is holding this years festival and I have to admit, it seems like its going to be an interesting experience. I think I remember that apparently theirs going to be a tournament of some kind but I'm not too sure. I kind of zoned out when Weiss was going on about the whole thing and eventually delved into proposing where we are now, ergo, walking the streets and examining everything.

"The Vytal Festival! Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!" No offense to Weiss, but she hasn't shut up about the whole thing. She takes a moment to stop and admire the area around us as she waves her arms in amazement.

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss. It's kinda weirding me out…" Ruby says and mentions the last part with a slight frown.

"I'm with you there Ruby. I've seen you smile but this… feels weird." I add.

Weiss turns towards us as she speaks. "How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances! Parades! A tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!" She goes off happily as she gives us the short version of what the festival is. _'Could have just told me this than turning it into a lecture.'_

"You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring." Yang is not wrong there.

"Quiet, you!"

"Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?" Yang asks out loud as the foghorns of the incoming ships come into view and range.

"Ugh, they smell like fish!" Ruby complains as she pinches her nose.

"It's the docks and the ocean. Of course it smells like fish." *Sniff* "Ohhhh, okay yeah that's… pretty strong." I agree with our leader as I cover my mouth and nose with my hand.

"I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And, as a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom!" Weiss explains. Somehow I have a hard time believing that genuine.

"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament." _'Sounds about right. Thank you Blake.'_

"You can't prove that." Weiss replies and we chuckle a little. We stop at the railings again before looking at the ships as they come in.

"Huh, Vacuo huh? I wonder if its anyone I know." I comment. My family was pretty isolated but during my travels I did meet some people who were cool.

"You know? Wait, your from Vacuo?" Blake asks and I nod.

"Yeah… Didn't I mention that before?" I ask looking at my teammates, only to find them looking at me curiously. "Oh, right. Well, yeah. I'm from Vacuo. You remember when I told you how my family was somewhat isolated? You know because of the whole 'Grimm' thing?" I word my question carefully. While they know about me, I don't want a random civilian finding and doing… something I don't know. I'm paranoid okay!

"Yeah." Ruby says.

"So the rugged expansive terrain of that place allowed your family to be… cut off?" Yang surmises and I nod

"That's right. Place still has pockets of crime and the less than stellar individuals inhabiting it so no batted an eye at us being alone. Got pretty lonely… and annoying... being there." I comment the last part in an annoyed tone as I look out into the ocean. A hand on my shoulder shifts me to see Weiss and the others looking at me with sad expressions.

"We're sorry, again, for what happened." I smile at the words before patting her hand and pulling it off me as I smile back at them.

"Aaaaahh. What's done is done. I won't focus on the past. I'll focus on what the future brings, and the now… like the police over there?"

"Yeah!" Ruby enthusiastically yells out in happiness at my willingness to not dwell on my past problems, before she gets a look of confusion, "Wait, what?" All of them turn at once down the road to see a broken shattered window down a side street with a door full of yellow caution tape of the Vale Police Force investigating the scene. Our curiosity peaked, we move to get a closer look at the scene. "Whoa, what happened here?" Ruby asks as we walk up to the police tape line and asks the detective writing on a pad.

"Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle." He informs us before he walks over to his partner.

"That's terrible." Yang comments and she's right. From what the detective said, this may be a common occurrence if this is the second one this week, and if it persists.

"They left all the money again." The second detective comments out loud.

"Yeah, just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?" The first detective that informed us before asks.

"I don't know, an army?"

"You thinking the uh, White Fang?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough." The detectives finish conversing before they go back to canvasing the area.

"Hmph! The White Fang." Weiss comments in disdain as she crosses her arms and pointing her nose in the air with her eyes closed. "What an awful bunch of degenerates!" As it stands, Weiss still shares no love for the White Fang who've been hounding her family's companies for awhile now.

"What's your problem?" Blake asks her slightly annoyed.

"My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane." Weiss bites back to Blake as she turns to her.

"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided Faunus." Blakes tries to defend them. What also stands is that Blake has taken to defending the White Fang at times, as well as anything related to the Faunus. Normally I don't see many humans defending the Faunus as hardcore as Blake has been but its nothing I'm deterred with. More non-Faunus people can learn to sympathize with the Faunus rather than let stupid racial tensions continue to rise.

"Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!" _'Okay, I know for a fact that there are some Faunus people who are quite… zealous in that little mindset. Not really a good image.'_

"So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!" Blake reasons.

"Hmm... Blake's got a point. Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago... Maybe it was him." Ruby proposes an alternative to the culprit of the crime.

"I read the news report. Didn't that guy and his men only try to take Dust before you interrupted them?" I ask Ruby. After I became her teammate and I remembered her comment back when we first met about how she took on Torchwick, I looked up the incident a bit more and while it was pretty vague with barely anything from Ruby besides her intervention, the only witness did say how the goons were taking the Dust. The same MO as what we have here.

"I don't know. I wasn't really paying attention. I was just beating them up." She answers simply and sweetly. I smirk and shake my head. _'Why am I not surprised?'_

"Regardless, that still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal." Weiss goes off on a small tangent about the White Fang, much to the slowly growing anger I see Blake start to develop.

"That's not necessarily true…" Yang says and she is kind of right. I mean the White Fang did originally start off as peaceful protest group but as time progressed and fights broke out, the group delved into the fanatical almost terrorist like group that everyone is making them out to be. And the attacks they perpetrate are not helping still.

"C'mon Weiss, that's not fair." I decide to voice my own opinion. "The Faunus have been dealt a bad hand time and time again. Their fighting back the same way they've been treated so many times and while that's not the way to go, we can't demonize the Faunus as a whole for the actions of some."

"How can you say that?!" Weiss asks me incredulously.

"Because I've seen the demons of both sides, Weiss!" I lightly yell back at her, not wanting to argue her about this. "I've seen humans do both good and bad things, as well as the Faunus, personally. And it doesn't matter whether they're human or Faunus because anyone can do some pretty horrible and bad things. Don't blame the species as a whole for the actions of a few." Out of the corner of my eye I think I see Blake smile at that but I focus more on Weiss. "So please be careful with what you say. You really are starting to make it sound like all Faunus are no-good criminals."

"Hey, stop that Faunus!"

' _Why universe?_ ' I mentally moan as our little session is interrupted by someone yelling. As one the entire team overhears the cry for help so we forgo the argument as we rush back to the docks to investigate what's going on. We spot a blond-haired monkey Faunus with a golden monkey running down the length of the boat and leaping onto the edge before speaking back to them and jumping off and running down the docks.

"You no-good stowaway!" One of the sailors yells at him.

Soon the monkey Faunus is hanging upside down by his tail on a light pole eating a banana. "Hey! A no-good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!" He replies and just barely misses a ston thrown at him. The detectives from before walk up to him.

"Hey! Get down from there this instant!"

The Faunus's reply is simply to drop the banana peel on the detective's face, who growls in anger. After climbing up and laughing in amusement, the Faunus leaps off and runs away from the detectives. His path takes him up to street level and right to us. Weird thing is though, just as he runs past us, I swear I see him he wink at Blake without and continues booking it, the detectives running right past us to chase him. _'Huh? Wha-What was that?'_ I look at Blake who is lost in thought at the guy that just ran past us. _'Okay, so I didn't imagine that. Would be weird if I did.'_

"Well, Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes…" Yang comments as we see the chase turn a corner.

"Quick! We have to observe him!" Weis demands and runs off.

Weiss, Yang, and Ruby give chase and I am about to go but I notice Blake just standing there. "Blake?" I gently shake her shoulder, which snaps her out of it. She shakes her head a second before staring at me. "I'm fine. Let's go." Not one to argue or question, I shrug my shoulders and we both take off after the others Weiss is very willing trying to catch up to the Faunus stowaway as she's the first one to round the corner out of our view.

"Oof!" We hear a small grunt around the corner and as we turn it, we see Weiss lying the ground and the chased Faunus having lost us when he jumps onto a building. "No, he got away!" "Weiss cries out at the lost opportunity. However there is something else we need to focus our attention on at the moment.

"Uhh… Weiss?" Yang is the first to point it out, literally, as she points strangely at the girl underneath our heiress her teammate.

Weiss finally sees that she fell on someone, who offers a smile at her but it comes off as somewhat creepy, which startles the heiress and she hastily gets up.

"Sal-u-ta-tions!" A smiling orange haired girl greets us with a small hand wave, from the ground.

"Um… hello." Ruby greets the girl.

"Are you... okay?" Yang asks.

"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking." What's weird is the girl still hasn't gotten up as she replies.

At the odd scene, we as a team look at each other in bewilderment at how this stranger is acting. "Do you... wanna get up?" Yang asks the girl.

"… Yes!" The girl actually takes a moment to think before answering. She rolls back onto her arms before jumping up and landing on her feet. The team is weirded out about her as all of them take a step back a little. I look left and right to see everyone took a step back except me, putting me in the front with Ruby. "My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!" The girl finally introduces herself to us.

Seeing as she introduced herself, we decide to do the same back. "Hi Penny. I'm Ruby."

"I'm Weiss."

"Blake."

"Ethan. Good to meet you."

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" My elbow launches out and jabs her in the side. She looks at me annoyed before looking forward and remembering why I did that. "Oh, I'm Yang."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny greets back, again.

"You already said that." Weiss points out.

"… So I did!" _'Seriously, what's with the pausing?'_

"Well, sorry for running into you!" Seeing as theirs not really anything else for us here, we start to turn around and begin walking away from with Weiss apologizing.

"Take care, friend!" Ruby replies with a arm wave.

"See you. Don't be a stranger." Honestly I doubt we'll see her again anytime soon so I'm just being polite. Right now we're still following Weiss as I think she's still on that Faunus that escaped earlier.

After rounding the corner and walking a few feet, Yang speaks up. "She was… weird…" She comments and while that may be a bit rude, she's not wrong. That girl was all sorts of odd. I can't help but look back, along with my team, towards where Penny was before.

"Now, where did that Faunus riff-raff run off to?" Weiss questions as we look forward, only to be greeted by a surprising sight.

"What did you call me?" Penny, of all people, is now standing right in front of us and asks her question.

Weiss has the same thought as I as she whips her head back and forth from the front with Penny to where she just was, disbelief and confusion clear as day on her face. I too stare at how she was suddenly able to appear in front of us so quickly and quietly while Yang apologizes. "Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely didn't think you heard me!"

"No, not you." Penny completely ignores us as she pushes past the others to Ruby right next to me, in which she proceeds to lean in incredibly uncomfortable towards our leader. "You!"

"Me? I-I don't know. I, what I, um, uh…" Ruby stutters our startled at the sudden attention and just what she might have down.

"You called me 'friend'! Am I really your friend?" Penny asks her almost expectantly.

"Uuuum…" Ruby moans confused and proceeds to look over Penny's shoulder to the others, who all make motions for Ruby to say now to the mysterious quirky girl. Finally, she glances to me slightly. I don't really know what to say so I simply shrug my shoulders. "Y-Yeah, sure! Why not?" She good heartedly tells Penny.

While our teammates decide faint at the ground, Penny however is overjoyed at the declaration and laughs. "Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!" I suddenly feel very very… very weird as she stares intently at me, and closely, before stepping back towards Ruby and leaning in. "There's a cute boy!"

She doesn't even try to be subtle! "What?! Noo! I don't- what?!" I stutter repeatedly as I feel my face heat up, which I'm sure is an indication that I'm blushing.

"Oh, is this what it was like when you met me?" Ruby groans and asks Weiss, referring to their second meeting back in initiation.

"No, she seems far more coordinated." She replies.

"So… what are you doing in Vale?" Yang asks Penny, a valid question.

"I'm here to fight in the tournament." Penny answers firmly but proudly.

' _Wait, her? Fighting in the tournament?'_ I mentally question in disbelief. "Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?" Weiss is confused as well.

"I'm combat ready!" Penny gives us a salute as she answers.

"Combat ready?" I mutter slightly confused.

"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part." Weiss straight up doesn't believe that this nice, joyful and odd girl in front us is someone that can partake in the combat tournament.

"Says the girl wearing a dress." And just like that, Blake throws a jab at the heiress, and she's not wrong. A skirt is not really something that goes with fighting attire.

"It's a combat skirt!"

"Yeah!" Ruby joins her skirt sister in agreement of their clothing choices. Weiss holds out her hand and Ruby low-fives it. _'Wow that is something I never thought I would ever see in a million years.'_

"Wait a minute." Weiss has a moment of realization and walks over to Penny before grabbing her by the shoulders, "If you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed… rapscallion?" A glance shows that Blake is still not too fond of Weiss's words for the Faunus we lost earlier.

"The who…?" Penny asks confused.

"The filthy Faunus from the boat!" She clarifies along with a crudely drawn and kind of bad drawing of the culprit.

"When did she draw that?" I can't help but ask Yang.

She shrugs, "Mm-mm."

"Why do you keep saying that?!" Blake yells at her frustrated.

"Huh?" Weiss mutters as she looks at our teammate.

"Stop calling him a rapscallion! Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!" She angrily states to her.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Weiss sarcastically apologizes as she looks to Blake now full on. "Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can? Or this lamppost as a lamppost?" She says as she gestures to the various items.

"Stop it!"

"Stop what? He clearly broke the law. Give him time; he'll probably join up with those other Faunus in the White Fang!" Weiss makes the assumption but its still not to Blakes pleasure or joy. Far from it.

"You ignorant little brat!" Blake yells at her before walking away.

"Whoa." I quietly mutter at the out right insult Blake just gave her. The arguments was simply them arguing but it never transpired to them openly insulting each other.

"How dare you talk to me like that! I am your teammate!" Weiss yells back and follows her.

"You are a judgmental little girl." They stop several feet away where they continue to argue what's right an wrong with Faunus.

"What in the world makes you say that?"

"The mere fact that…"

Yang slides up next to Ruby and I, a clear look of discomfort on her face as is the rest of us. "Um, I think we should probably go…" She proposes and I can't help but nod.

"Where are we going?" Penny suddenly asks as she pops up between Ruby and I, a smile on her face.

We look at Penny before I lean in close to her. "Sorry Penny. This is a personal team matter and we need to get back to our room."

"Oh." She moans sadly at not being included but I pat her shoulder comfortingly. It does a little to lift her spirits.

"…as you believe him to be!" Their argument continues on, refocusing our attention.

"So you admit it! The White Fang is just a radical group of terrorists!"

"That's not what I meant, and you know it!"

I nudge both Ruby and Yang. "We better get back to the room already. Don't want to make a scene. Besides, its not like they can keep this argument going on the way there." I propose quietly so our bickering teammates won't hear. Regardless Ruby and Yang nod to me.

* * *

' _Oh how wrong I was.'_

We are now back in our room with it being night outside. Unfortunately, I assumed wrong the argument would end on the way and as we stand in our room, the girls are still arguing just as intensely as when it started.

"I don't understand why this is causing such a problem!" Weiss asks.

"That is the problem!"

"You realize you are defending an organization that hates Humanity, don't you? The Faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!" Weiss shouts once she stands up from sitting on the bed.

"There's no such thing as pure evil! Why do you think they hate Humanity so much? If people acted more decently like Ethan then the White Fang wouldn't need to be what they are now." From what I remember, I guess its my opinions and not jumping to conclusions about most Faunus that she thinks that, not to mention I still remember helping Velvet with Cardin. "It's because of people like Cardin though, people like you, that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!" Blake continues to yell.

"People like me?"

"You're discriminatory!"

"I'm a victim!" Weiss yells out. The statement and outburst finally brings some quiet to the longwinded argument they've been having. I get worried though when Weiss leans in close to Blake and speaks in a quieter tone compared to before. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus?" She says as she walks over to the bookshelf against the window and leans on it. "It's because they've been at war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear; board members executed; an entire train car full of Dust, stolen. And every day, my father would come home, furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood." She recounts her past dealings with the White Fang. Honestly, I'm not really surprised now that she's explained everything. Growing up with a target painted on your back isn't exactly a childhood one can properly live with. When those gunning for the target on your family that will in turn make them angry, just as she said.

"Weiss, I—" Ruby attempts to comfort her.

"No!" Weiss won't have any of it as she stalks back over to Blake, still angry. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"

"Weiss you can't—"

"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"

Silence drops down on the scene again. What I was going to say gone as we take in what Blake just said. A surprised Weiss backs away slowly, and only now does Blake realizes her mistake as she looks around at us. "We?"

I wish I didn't say that.

"I… I…" Blake stutters before she dashes out the door.

"Blake!" I call out to her as she's gone in an instant.

"Blake, wait! Come back!" Ruby calls out to her but its not enough as she's already gone. I step up next to her as we look out the door before ee turn back to our teammates. Yang and Weiss are quite shocked to hear the news we just heard but none more so than Weiss. Ruby and I look at each other. I don't know if she can see what I want through my eyes, but when she jerks her head towards the door, I waste no time in nodding and bolting.

* * *

The dead of night, the cool air permeates the air what some may find relaxing, that is not the case whatsoever for Blake as she runs outside of the building, down the stone pathway until she arrives at the statue. The statue depicts that of an armored man with a sword and a hooded woman wielding an axe on an outcropping while stand atop a defeated Grimm Beowolf. She stands there for several tense seconds, her mind swirling with a mix of thoughts and emotions, as well as chastising herself for revealing a deep dark secret of her past to her would be teammates. She stares at the Beowolf under the stone heroes in particular until she lets out a tense sigh.

She closes her eyes and slowly lifts her arms up to her bow before with careful ease, she begins to pull the string on her bow. With agonizing slowness, her bow continues to become undone until with one final pull, it comes undone, revealing the other secret that she has been keeping for fear of being judged. A simple pair of cat ears adorn the top of her head, signifying her status and lineage as a Faunus. A tear has formed under her eye as she gently wipes it away. Her teammates were some of the closest people she has come to trust here at the academy but now, having revealed her status as having been a part of an infamous organization, not to mention a Faunus, a subject of great scrutiny by many people…

"I knew you would look better without the bow."

She gasps, her moment of being on the verge of crying completely gone at the new voice. Turning around, she sees the same monkey Faunus that had escaped capture and winked at her smiling down at her.

* * *

"Huh." I comment as I stare at the tree I'm using as a hiding spot. After following Blake, I was able to find her standing in front of the statue in the courtyard and instead of catching up to her, I watched as she just revealed herself to be a Faunus. In hindsight as I think about it, things are starting to make a bit more sense. "Well, that explains why she doesn't like you." I say as I turn back to my Grimm. Shadow lets out a low whine as he lays on the ground. I shake my head before looking back to see her starting to walk off with the monkey Faunus from before. I turn back to Raven next to Shadow still on the ground. "Tail her. Stay out of sight but do not lose her." She nods before with a flare of her wings, takes into the sky high above before heading off in the direction they left.

All the while though, I can't help but sigh at how bad things went so quickly. Not to mention what this may mean for our team as a whole. _'Weiss… a member of the Schnee family, and Blake… a former member of the White Fang, hopefully.'_ I groan and rub my forehead. "I can't think of a worse combo of people to be in a team than that." Sulking at the situation at hand, I look down at Shadow, who looks up at me in concern, having picked up on my emotions. Offering a comforting smile, I pet his head before gesturing for us to go. "C'mon Shadow, there's nothing more we can do right now. I don't think she wants to see her team right now." I sadly state before walking back to our room, Shadow stepping behind me.

Another idea hits me in the head of what might happen, much to my dismay. "If we'll even have a team after." Needless to say, I didn't sleep well tonight. Just when things were starting be good around here.

* * *

 **Hello all. I have officially finished my time in college and am no longer taking anymore classes. I will be graduating soon and from there is simply getting started on my career. Until then though, my time is completely open, minus some new games coming out or some improvements made to old ones (I'm talking about State of Decay 2 and season 6 of For Honor). Still, I want to apologize for a slight delay in the progress of this chapter since my writing drive has taken a hit lately but that just may be from finishing up my classes and preparing for Graduation.**

 **Even so, their wasn't a whole lot to this chapter that I could have improved on to give Ethan a more impactful role in what happened in the episode. Regardless I'm comfortable with what I wrote and I hope you all liked it too.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Cf96:** Thanks.

 **FractionOfASecond:** If I were to completely tell you how it all is with Ethan's ability to control his Grimm and what his semblance is going to be or possibly connected, then that would be spoiling and I'm not really at that point where I'll reveal to anyone just what might entail. Still, good guess anyway and at the very least, I thank you for the review.

 **Unfortunately everyone, I had heard some news that I don't think any of us would like whatsoever. Lately theirs been the whole issue with Net Neutrality and all but I heard about the date that signifies the end of the free internet we've come to know and love.**

 **June 11** **th** **. That's supposed to be the day where the end of Net Neutrality will start to take effect on the internet. I'm not a 100% sure about the whole thing and frankly, I hope I'm wrong and nothing comes of it but in case it does, I just want everyone to be prepared for it. I'm going to make announcements on my other stories to let others following those stories know what's going on. Until the date, I'm going to focus on my most popular Steven Universe story 'A Tale of A Jade' because this has me a little shook up to be honest. I want to focus on one thing as much and as long as I can until I know for sure everything is going to be alright.**

 **Still, I want to thank you all for your support of my work and wish you the best of luck in general. Fave, follow, review, whatever you want, have fun reading and make sure to have a great day.**


	12. 11 Black and White

This still isn't good. It's the next couple days since Blake took off and she hasn't returned. I was kind of expecting her to not return of course the next day after the night she took off but to be honest, I was hoping I would be wrong. The sad look Ruby was giving at the empty bed of Blakes wasn't good either. Now that its Sunday and she's still not back, the feeling of worry by some of the team is permeable in the atmosphere. Weiss is still cross about the whole thing and that's not good. Thankfully, it's the weekend so we don't have any classes to take up our time or for us to get in trouble for skipping. So we can go ahead and search for our missing teammate without the teachers getting suspicious. The four of us are here now in Vale searching for her as best we can.

"Blaaaake!" Ruby shouts our runaway friends name.

"Blaaaake!" Yang calls out too. When we don't get anything in return, they both sigh in frustration. "Anything?" She asks me. I shake my head no. I told them I sent out Raven and Shadow to try to find her. In reality, Shadow already had her scent and Raven still has eyes on her. I didn't want to immediately tell Ruby and the others where Blake was because it seemed like too soon for everyone to meet. Not with Weiss still cross and slightly angry at the idea of one of our teammates was a member of the White Fang. So far Blake is still fine with that monkey faunus named Sun so at the very least, she's safe and I'm going to bide time for everyone to cool down.

They both grunt in frustration before Ruby shouts some more. "Blaaaaaaaake! Where aaaare yoooouuuu!?" She calls out.

"Blake!" Yang too.

"Weiiiiss, you're not helping!" Ruby remarks to the heiress as all she's been doing is walking by us without making any effort to help out as we stop for a second.

"Oh! You know what might be able to help? The police!"

"Ugh." I groan and place my face in my hand, frustrated. _'And that's why I haven't brought Blake back yet.'_

"Ugh, Weiss…" Ruby too groans at the attitude our teammate displays.

"It was just an idea!" Weiss complains but we aren't listening as we continue to walk again.

"Yeah, a bad one." Ruby bitterly states as she walks ahead of us.

"She was our friend and teammate first. Let's not forget that." I voice my opinion as I walk behind her. I don't care about her past so long as she's not part of them now. They aren't exactly a peaceful group anymore, regardless of their intentions.

"Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions." Yang says walking behind me.

"III think that when we hear it, you'll all realize I was right!" Weiss takes up the rears as she continues to speak of ill intentions of our friend.

"And I think Weiss' hair looks wonderful today!" Penny compliments her from behind. _'Wait, what?'_

"Aaaah! Penny! Where did you come from!?" We all turn around in surprise at the sudden new addition to our group as Ruby screams and asks. _'How the hell did we not notice her?!'_

"Hey guys! What are you up to?" She completely ignores the question as she cheerily asks us with a wave to what we're doing.

"Uhh…" For a second we stand there confused, as Ruby's groaning indicates.

"We're looking for our friend Blake." Luckily Yang snaps out of it and informs her what we're doing.

"Ooooh, you mean the Faunus girl!"

"…" We stare at her for a several stunned seconds as the wind blows by us. _'But… how did she… how…?'_ It was only last night I found out about Blakes faunus traits and it didn't feel like I had any right to tell the others.

"Wait, how did you know that?" Ruby asks.

"Uhh, the cat ears?" Penny states like it's the most obvious thing in the world as she points to her own head as an example.

"What cat ears? She wears a… bo _ooohhh_ …" Yang begins to laugh it off until the realization hits everyone.

"…" The wind blows by, a tumbleweed somehow in the middle of the city bounces as it rolls by us.

"She does like tuna a lot…" Whispers Ruby.

"And why she's uncomfortable with Shadow." I add. "In hindsight we really should have seen it to begin with." The others nod a little.

"So, where is she?" Penny asks.

"We don't know. She's been missing since Friday." Ruby tells her, which I think is a bad idea.

"That's terrible!" Penny gasps and loudly says before approaching and grabbing an uncomfortable Ruby. "Well, don't you worry Ruby, my friend! I won't rest until we find your teammate!" She firmly states with conviction with her arms bent against her sides.

Ruby gives an uncomfortable smile to the odd orange-haired girl while I look on uneasy. "Uh, that's really nice of you, Penny, but we're okay! Really! Right, guys?"

"…"

"Girls?" I question as well when Ruby doesn't get a reply. Right where Weiss and Yang were standing… is nothing. They are completely gone and have abandoned us.

The wind blows past us again, another tumbleweed bouncing in the opposite direction as it passes us in the quiet betrayal. "It sure is windy today." Penny comments.

"Was that the same tumbleweed?" I question, for some reason.

* * *

Several blocks elsewhere, the betrayers of team RWBEY come walking out of a shop with Yang waving to the person inside. "Thanks anyways!" She turns around and lets out a sigh at the lack of info. "This is hopeless." When she looks at Weiss, she notices her teammate is looking around nonchalantly, still not putting in as much effort in looking for their friend. "You really don't care if we find her, do you?"

"Don't be stupid; of course I do." Weiss bites back at the blond at the insinuation that she doesn't care at all. "I'm just afraid of what she'll say when we find her." She starts walking forward before calling out her teammate over her shoulder. "The innocent never run, Yang!" She shouts her reasoning.

Yang isn't as easily swayed by the words. She sighs at her friends attitude and walks after her. All the while, the two of them don't notice a pair of red eyes staring at them from an alleyway that they pass. Shadow stares at the two as they pass the entrance before trotting deeper into the alleyway and following them.

* * *

' _Did they really think they could lose us so easily?'_ I think. It wasn't that hard to have Shadow track their scents when they ditched. Or more specifically, it was easy to track Yang.

She uses aaaallloooot of shampoo on her hair.

So while I know where they are, I subtly lead my remaining friends with me to where the Y and W of our team is. Unfortunately they walk away from us so while we head in their direction, we don't really make as much ground unless they stop for some reason or another.

"So, Blake is your friend?" Penny asks us.

"Yes, Penny." Ruby sighs as she answers while we walk.

"That's right." I add.

"But you're mad at her?"

"Yes- Well, I'm not." Ruby quickly corrects herself.

"We're not. But some in our team aren't." I say.

"Weiss is."

"Is she friends with Blake?" Penny asks.

"Sort of." I answer uncertainly as I scratch my head. I'm hoping we'll have an answer by the end of the day, and it's a good one for all of us.

"Well, that's kind of up in the air right now…" Ruby uncomfortably says. So am I.

"But why?" Penny's alright. She's a nice girl, a little odd but nothing bad. Problem is, she can be a little… dense at times. On occasion, Ruby can be too but Penny is… on a whole other level I feel like.

"Well, you see, Blake might not be who we though she was…"

"Is she a man?"

*PONG*

"Ow!" And I run into a light pole.

"No! No, Penny. She's…" The others ignore me as I stand there rubbing my head while they pass me. Ruby assures to Penny that Blake is NOT a man. She does stop a few steps further ahead and sighs before turning to Penny. "I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off."

"She just took off with barely a word. I chased her but she is the stealthiest out of all of us." I comment as I walk up to them, rubbing the sore spot on my head.

"I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things." Penny speaks words of wisdom right there. A little dense at times but she knows what's good.

"Me too…" Ruby sadly says as she looks down. I pat her shoulder comfortingly.

"We'll make things right. They can't be angry forever." I tell her. I think we can meet together soon since it looks like everyone is cooling down some. Just a little more.

Once she sees my firm look, she nods, not sad as much but more so wanting to find our friends and make things better. "Right." We continue walking.

* * *

Hours pass as the search for Blake continues. Night has already fallen over the land and while the majority of the members of team RWBEY are searching for Blake, she and her new friend Sun plan to use the cover of night to put their plan into action. Whether the White Fang truly are behind the robberies is something Blake really wants to know so thanks to Sun, they know of a large shipment of Dust has entered the port of Vale. Whoever is robbing all the Dust will not miss the opportunity, thus allowing them to find out who is behind it truly.

Blake waits on a nearby rooftop overwatching the docks while she waits for her partner to return.

"Did I miss anything?" Sun asks when he returns.

She turns to look at him. "Not really. They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there." True to what she said, the cargo containers bearing the Schnee Dust company logo has all been off loaded and the workers are gone, leaving the place deserted for anyone to steal it. A perfect target.

"Cool." Sun holds out a green apple from the bunch he has in his arm. "I stole you some food." He tells her without a second thought.

"Do you always break the law without giving a second thought?" She asks him with a questioning look, not bothering to take the stolen fruit.

"Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?" He counters. And now the questioning look Blake had has been replaced with an angry glare. "Okay, too soon."

Just as he says this, the winds blow all around them, forcing them to cover themselves a little before they look up to see a Bullhead's searchlights flashing around the docks for a landing spot. It descends in the middle of the cargo containers and when it lands, it extends a ramp towards the ground where a black hooded individual with white tunic clothing with red and metallic fanged mask comes out.

"Oh no…" Blake moans in disdain at the familiar uniformed individual.

"Is that them?" Sun asks.

"Yes… It's them." Blake confirms as she stares intently at the red beowolf with slash marks on the back of the uniform.

Soon enough, after seeing the coast is clear, to them at least, more soldiers of the White Fang disembark the vehicle. "All right, grab the tow cables!" One orders as he holds an assault rifle.

"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" Sun asks his companion.

"No." She replies sadly. "I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right." She closes her eyes in despair at seeing the once peaceful group she joined stooping so low.

"Hey! What's the holdup!?" A new voice makes her open her eyes. Descending down the ramp is none other than Roman Torchwick, a known criminal and robber that once tangoed with the leader of team RWBEY. "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?" What's odd about this scene is the White Fang are predominantly Faunus, and yet the criminal giving them orders is a human.

"This isn't right." Blake says. "The White Fang would never work with a Human. Especially not one like that." Wanting to find answers now rather than later, she pulls out the katana of Gambol Shroud and jumps down off the roof.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Sun cries out in alarm as she jumps off before quickly following after her.

Blake, like the cat faunus she is, lands on her feet before standing and gets ready to put her plan into action in trying to get some answers. "Gah!" This is when she gets over getting startled by Raven perched on a nearby crate.

"Hey! Wait up. Why are you- What the-?!" Sun catches up to her and stops dead next to her when he sees a small Grimm bird in front of her. "A-A Grimm?! Here?!" He almost yells and goes to pull out his weapons but Blake shoots her arm out in front of Sun, halting him.

"Wait." She tells him. He looks at her with extreme confusion in his eyes until she slowly walks up to the bird. Meanwhile Raven simply stays there on her perch, tilting her head every so often as she watches Blake approach. Seeing no outward aggression or attacking taking place, he calmly lowers his arms down but stays rigid, ready to attack. As soon as Blake stops a few feet in front of her, she lets out a sigh as she cups her forehead. "So, you found me. Are the others on there way?" She asks.

Suns eyes almost bug out as he watches the bird Grimm nod her head a little.

"Great." Blake lets out a frustrated groan before shaking her head and looking at Raven. "Well, I guess I can use the backup. They can come but please don't attack just yet until I do. Somethings going on and I need to find out why. Can they do that?"

"…" Raven stares back at Blake before she picks at her feathers with her beak.

"Of course, you can't talk. Why did I think differently." She can grumbles to herself at having been found out by her team and walking away. She was going to go meet and talk to them eventually but now in the middle of finding out about the robberies was not something she was hoping. No matter though, she still has to get her answers and now she needs to be quick about it. As she walks away, Sun stares at her with an incredulous look at what he just witnessed before turning to the Grimm. She cocks her head at him curiously. Not wanting to be alone, he fast walks after her.

"Uhhh, are we not going to acknowledge how you were just talking to a Grimm a few seconds ago?" Sun asks incredibly confused.

* * *

"Got her."

"What?" Ruby quickly asks.

"I found her. She's at the docks." I clarify.

"Oh, thank Oum."

"Oh that's wonderful!" Penny loudly exclaims with her arms in the air in happiness that Blake has been found. Soon though, her happy expression turns to curiosity. "How?"

"Uhh what?" Ruby asks before Penny walks up and gets right in my face.

"Your right here, with us, and have been for the past few hours. How have you found Blake when we haven't seen you seen her?" She asks. Not accusing or anything like that but more so in a very curious manner as to how.

It's then that I realize that Penny has no idea about my special… friends. "Oh crap! Penny doesn't know about them!" Penny whisper yells behind me, which completely doesn't work because Penny is still right in front of me.

"Yes Ruby, I realized that." I whisper yell back to her but again, it doesn't really escape our peculiar friends ears. I stare back at Penny before taking a step back. "Uhhh the situation is a little complicated Penny. C'mon, let's get moving before things take a turn for the worse." I lead them down the direction where the docks are. "Like I said, how I know is a little… complicated." I say to her without looking back.

"Why?" She asks.

"I just… I know some… people that were able to find her… only…" I trail off as I try to come up with a proper explanation without kind of dropping the G word straight up.

"Only what?" She asks again.

I look at Ruby but she's just as stumped and unsure how to proceed. "Only… only I can see and understand them." I give a vague enough explanation as I can without completely spilling everything.

"Ooohhhhh… like a ghost!" It… wasn't perfect.

"What? No! No no no Penny not… I don't see ghosts."

*Boom*

Before I can explain anymore, an explosion goes off in the distance towards the docks. Dread fills me as to just what happened. "Although if we don't hurry, our friends may become ghosts."

We quit beating around the bush and sprint to the docks.

* * *

"Grrrrrr."

"Slow down Shadow!" Yang wails as she's pulled along by the wolf Grimm by her gauntlet with his teeth. "Where are we going?!"

"Ethan must have found something. That's why he must have sent Shadow to us." Weiss surmises as she walks behind them. Shadow lets go of Yang and pants a little now that they know what he's doing.

"You think?" Yang asks her teammate as she wipes away the drool.

*Boom*

An explosion goes off at the docks, immediately getting all their attention. Right in the direction that Shadow was pulling them. He immediately bounds on all fours straight towards the docks. "Yeah, I do." Weiss replies and the two follow.

* * *

"Hey!" Ruby yells out as they finally make it to the docks port. Deciding on a better vantage point, Ruby, Ethan and Penny look down from a nearby rooftop and see the carnage that has been wrought. Dozens of guys are scattered around the whole place with some of them standing while others seem worse for wear on the ground. To top it off, several large cargo containers have been blasted and broken all over, leaving the place a bit of wreck. What makes the image even more weird is the fact that the large majority of the men that are there are wearing the uniforms of the White Fang. _'Huh, so they really were a part of the robberies.'_ Ethan thinks and gets ready to grab my weapons, just as Ruby already has Crescent Rose ready to go.

"Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your bedtime?" Interesting enough, the criminal robber that Ruby mentioned a few days ago is here as well, taunting the team leader. While he focuses on Ruby, Sun gets up from the ground where he was next to Roman and moves away.

"Ruby, Ethan, are these people your friends?" Penny takes the moment to walk up to her two friends and ask curiously.

"Penny, get back!" Ruby calls out as she looks back at the curious girl who has quickly become their friend in such a short time. Ethan too looks back but quickly look back to the front to see Roman aiming his cane at them. A small boom later and an explosive is hurled right towards the trio.

"Watch out!" He yells and quickly pushes Ruby out of the way, while at the same time pushing himself back. Penny also takes the hint and moves out of the way of the flying projectile. It sails past them before it explodes in the air further away. He looks to where the explosive blew up then back to the attacker who is scowling that he missed. Ethan adopts his own cross look as he stares at the man that just tried to get the jump on them.

"Ethan go. I'll cover you from here." Ruby quickly orders him before she turns her scythe around and stabs the blade into the ground, stabilizing it as she looks down the scope.

"Gotcha." He nods and steps forward, falling off the street level and landing on the docks stone floor and pulls Razor's Revolt.

"Wait Penny!" Ruby calls out and like with Ethan, Penny falls off and lands on the ground right next to him on his right.

"Penny?" Ethan says her name in a questioning manner but she simply looks back up to Ruby.

"Don't worry, Ruby." She answers back and right before their eyes, the backpack she's been wearing opens up and single sword emerges. They are thrown for a loop as the single sword multiplies into several and floats around her. With a flick of her arms outwards to her side, a sword each is sent flying to either side of them, catching and pinning two White Fang members that were trying to sneak up on both Penny and Ethan from either side. He looks on in surprise at the deft, quick and precise movement she exhibited right now. He looks at the disabled combatant before looking back at her with wide eyes. She smiles at him. "I'm combat ready!" She finishes saying.

Ethan stares at her for a few seconds before smiling and nodding at her. "Hm, well alright then." He smirks before bringing his right hand up to his mouth. "I got some tricks too." And with a sharp whistle, his backup arrives. Raven streaks through the air before she hovers next to Penny on her right and Shadow bounds off the street level and lands to the left of Ethan. Penny gives off a small gasp at seeing them but before she can use her blades, he places his hand on her shoulder, making her look at him. "Remember the friends I mentioned earlier?" She widens her eyes as she looks at him before he smiles and gestures to the two Grimm. "Raven. Shadow." He introduces them.

She stares at the two of them for a second looking to Ethan. "Are they safe?" She asks cautiously.

Before he can answer though, four White Fang run up to them with assault rifles ready to fire on the two.

*Snap*

Ethan snaps his fingers and just like that, the Grimm spring into action. The image of seeing some Grimm here make the enemy hesitate at the absurdity of their appearance and its enough for Shadow to streak forward and slice through their weapons with his tail. They look on in surprise as their weapons are cut in two but before they can do anything else, its Raven's turn as she swipes her wings forward, sending a flurry of feather arrows straight towards their enemy. Many of the nip at their forms forcing their aura's to flare up and protect them from the onslaught of projectiles but some of them catch onto them, pinning them to the ground or the sides of the cargo containers. With the immediate enemy's to them take care of, he turns to her. "I'd say so."

She looks at them in surprise before returning her own smile to him. Now that the two of them are ready, they move forward and get ready to fight. Shadow and Raven spread out to the sides and begin picking off straggler White Fang on the edges of the dock while Ethan and Penny focus down the middle with Ruby providing cover fire on any of them coming up from behind. Ethan dashes forward and engages two White Fang, easily blocking their attacks before knocking them out. As more of them come to attack him, Penny slides in with her swords floating behind her, hitting one enemy with them, pinning another to the wall on their left, and creates a barrier of spinning steel swords in front of Ethan and her, reminding him of his own blades extended spinning function, against a running attack of two goons. Their attacks fail as they bounce off and are sent flying away from the two. She leaps over another goon with her swords in tow and slices him as she comes down, and finally a large mass of White Fang goons of over a dozen in number head straight for the two. Ethan looks to see Penny making a wheel out of her swords and gets ready to throw it. He watches in awe as she throws it, making knock every single one of the Faunus enemies off their feet.

"Whoa."

"Whoa!" Both he and Sun look on in amazement at the spectacle they just witnessed. Ethan doesn't stare in awe for too long as two more groups come at them from their left and right, one bigger than the other. He focuses on the biggest one and extends Razor in his left hand before sending it in its plus extended setting straight at them, knocking them all down similar to how Penny took down the first group. He prepares to do the same to the other group but find they've already been taken care of. They are groaning as they lay on the ground from getting hit hard by something. A look back to the rooftop shows his leader waving to him as she cocks another round into crescent rose.

"Nice." He nods to her before extending his arm up and catching Razor as it comes flying back to him. He doesn't have a chance to rest however as suddenly over the water, three Bullheads come from the skies and open fire on them. Both he and Penny shield themselves as they send their weapons to start spinning in front of them, blocking the bullets from the air vehicles.

"Stay down! I got this!" Penny tells Ethan as he crouches to better hold himself against the onslaught. Before he can question her, she launches two of her swords into the far wall behind her, which in turn pulls her back with their strings through the air until she lands and braces against the wall. This actions catches two of the Bullheads and move in to continue to attack her while the third keeps its fire on Ethan. Without the other two, he's no longer winded from having to keep all the bullet fire off him and can hold against the solo Bullheads fire. With Penny in position, she commands her swords to open their points and a large glowing ball of green light begins to form in the middle of her circular of weapons. Reeling her arm back, she punches the air in front of her, the action activating the green light sending several bright lasers forward. This cracks the pavement around her when they fire straight at the transports and slice each one in half, causing several of the White Fang members inside to fall and letting Ruby watch as the halved Bullheads fall in pieces behind her. The one in font of Ethan is cut in half as well and falls straight to the ground. He looks stunned at the action and looks to see the others are taken out as well. Another Bullhead, this one carrying the container filled with Dust, takes off and Ethan is about to throw his weapons at it in hopes of disabling the weapons when several of Penny's swords stab into the hull of the vehicle. She then holds herself steady as she grabs the wires coming from her backpack and actually pulls the several ton heavy vehicle to the ground.

"What the hell is she?" Ethan breaths out in stunned awe as he watches her.

"Whoa… How is she doing that?" Ruby too is surprised at this before she quickly pulls up her weapon.

A few White Fang members run out from the sides and go to attack the vulnerable Penny but are stopped before they can. Two are knocked out from high caliber shots from Ruby while Ethan slices another away from her. He quickly nods to her and watches her back, making sure none will try to attack her while she focuses on taking down the vehicle carrying the precious cargo. No more come after her so he takes the chance to watch with rapt attention as Penny with all her might pulls on the strings, forcing it out of the sky and making the aircraft crash into a stack of cargo crates, causing an explosion as a result, no doubt from the Dust contents possibly igniting.

Roman meanwhile watches the freaky display of power from the entrance of the Bullhead about the take off. "These kids just keep getting weirder." He comments and goes to close the door. "Arhhh!" He yelps as something grabs his leg and nearly forces him out of the aircraft if it wasn't for him grabbing the edge of the door. As he looks down, his eyes widen as he sees a small Grimm biting onto his shoe and trying to pull him out. "Aahhh! Get off me you flea bitten mongrel!" He yells and starts smacking the hound with his cane. The wolf winces from the hits but remains firm in holding on.

"Hey!" Roman looks up and watches as Ethan begins making his way to him. Not wanting to stay here anymore, he aims his cane right at the Grimm and prepares to fire. Firing this close would normally be suicidal but he doesn't fancy going to jail anytime soon. Shadow jerks away just as he fires, making an explosion go off right on the floor, sending Shadow tumbling away and Roman thrown into Bullhead.

"Get us out of here!" He yells to the pilot and slams the door closed. He holds on still as the Bullhead does a hard turn away from the docks and the interlopers to their operation just now. He hears a few impacts against the hull but the aircraft continues flying without any other problem. Once its leveled out and its become a smooth ride, he lets out a sigh of breath and leans against the wall. "Well, that could have gone better." He sighs in disappointment at how bad the operation took a turn. It was going so well at first and now, he leaves back to base with barely any Dust, and barely a handful of his… associates. With a dejected sigh, he uses his cane push himself onto his feet. "Hm?" He question as one of his feet suddenly feels colder against the floor, and lower. A quick look confirms his question, and makes him angry. "Son of a—!"

* * *

"Good work Shadow. Whatcha got there?" I ask him as I walk up. The Bullhead carrying Roman Torchwick has already taken off out of range, so besides Ruby nailing it with a couple shots, he's long gone. Shadow for his part, turns to me and offers something in his mouth. "A shoe?" I question, making him bark happily. I look at the shoe, to Shadow, then to the retreating aircraft before I smile. "Nice one boy." I pat his head, making him wag his tail in happiness. Without anymore for us to do, I walk back to the others. Soon enough I spot Penny and Ruby together.

"Aw man, he got away." My leader sadly states with Penny patting her back.

"Not all of him." I pitch in before tossing the stolen object to her. She catches it with both hands and looks at it confused. "Sort of."

"Is that a shoe?" Penny questions as she looks at it closely. "From who?"

I don't answer but instead turn back to the direction the thief went before back to them. "… Ahhahahahahah!" After a moment to think, Ruby gets it and laughs, making me chuckle as well. Pleasantries don't last long though as we hear police sirens.

"C'mon, let's go explain to the police what happened." I begin to say and soon enough, Blake and Sun emerge from elsewhere and walk up to us, Blake looking a little down. "We got a lot to talk about." I add out loud. More so directed at our runaway teammate and she catches that, nodding a little reluctantly at what's to come now. No more running.

Less than half an hour later and the police are here, rounding up all the criminals we knocked out and securing the area. A handful of police cars are at the docks, where Ruby, Blake, Sun, Penny and I are sitting on some boxes in silence. Not all of our team is here so we decide to wait for them to come by so we can get to explanations and make sure everything is alright. Soon enough, Weiss and Yang appear on the scene. I feel tense all of a sudden and Ruby makes a bee-line for them.

"Look Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute…" She tries to explain but Weiss ignores her and squares off with Blake.

"Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the—"

"Stop!" Weiss cuts off the newly discovered Faunus. "Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you? Twelve hours." She answers the question after a short pause. "That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided…"

Yang, Sun, Ruby and I look on worried on what might be said. Its then I notice that we are missing one other. "Hm?" I question as I look around to find the quirky girl. Soon enough, I find her walking away from us and heading away from us.

"I don't care." While Weiss answers, and I smile at the answer, I exit myself from the group and jog over to the retreating girl.

"Penny." I lightly call out to her as I make my way to her, not enough to get the others attention but enough for her. She turns around in surprise at me having seen her.

"Oh! Ethan! Hello! Nice to see you!" She replies in a pretty loud and happy tone that just shouldn't be for this conversation, along with a forced smile.

I look at her weirdly before replying. "Penny, what's wrong? Why'd you just suddenly leave?"

*Honk*Honk*

Before she can answer, a care horn goes off behind her. We look to see a black limo is nearby and someone in the backseat is gesturing to Penny to come to them. I can't see the face do to the tinted and black windows but I look back to her to see her looking down and unsure of what to say. "I… I technically… wasn't supposed to be out at this time… or before, as a matter of fact." She tells me sadly, still looking to the ground as she presses the tips of her index fingers together.

I stare at her for a few seconds until I glance to the limo then back to her. "So, you have to go back now?"

"Yeah. I just… didn't know how to tell you so I just… left." She says in the still sad tone.

"Heeeey come on now. Don't be sad. Just because your leaving now doesn't mean we won't ever see each other again." I say in hopes of raising her spirits. She looks a little better now and I look to the sky. "It's getting late anyway so chances are we were probably going to have to leave anyway. We have classes tomorrow so we can't be out too late."

"Oh yeah! That's right." She answers, better now that we have valid reasons for needing to leave at this time.

"Don't worry Penny. I'm sure soon we'll meet again." I smile at her and extend my hand. "Until then, have a good- Hgrk!"

"Thank you so much for being my friend!" The enthusiastic girl happily says as she hugs me in an almost bone-crushing hug, as she lifts me off the ground.

"Yes… okay… your welcome Penny. Please… let me go… air…" I breathlessly let out.

"Oh! Sorry." She finally lets me, allowing me to breathe in a sweet lungful of air. Once I manage to riht myself, we smile at each other.

"So, I'll see you later."

"Sure. See ya Penny." I wave to the girl as she begins walking away. She waves back to me one last time before heading off to the limo and getting in. A simple hand wave in the general direction to the vehicle, I head back to the others. When I make it back to everyone, I notice the atmosphere isn't that bad or anything anymore. Not tense. Their even smiling. _'Good looks like things are patched up.'_

"Hey, wait a minute… Where's Penny?" Ruby asks as she glances around.

"And Ethan for that matter?" Weiss asks as well when she notices I'm not there.

"She had to go." I speak out loud, getting all their attention as I walk up from behind them. "Turns out Penny had gone out without permission so she needed to head home." I quickly explain as best I can. "I was just saying bye to her."

"Ohhh. Soooo, why didn't she bye to the rest of us?" Ruby asks, a little sad at the sudden departure of our friend.

I take a few seconds to come up with a proper answer. "… We were kind of having a moment here. You know, clearing the air of some issues." I say as I glance over to Weiss and Blake. They understand what I mean and smile at each other in understanding before back to me. "So she didn't want to interrupt and just excused herself. I caught up to her, we said goodbye and that's that." I finish. It's not the exact reason why she left without saying goodbye but this should be alright. I give a slow look to each and everyone here. "Sooooo since I don't see any angry faces or Weiss yelling,"

"Hey!"

"I assume everything is good?" I ask.

"Yeah, we're all good. These two made up so everything's back to normal." Yang says as she pats the backs of Blake and Weiss, in which Weiss still looks annoyed at my comment.

"Team RWBEY is back together again!" Ruby loudly and happily shouts into the air with her arms thrown up to the sky.

"Ruby! You already said that." Weiss states in an annoyed tone.

"Well, yeah… but he didn't hear me the first time." She mentions innocently enough as she points to me. The answer is so simple and easy, that it lifts our spirits from the intense battle we had faced less than half an hour ago and we begin to laugh. It's a good feel after the last few days of constant worry for our teammate for things to end up on good terms for everyone. It's a relief everything's good now.

* * *

"Huuuuuu, dang it." Roman lets out a defeated sigh as he leans on the table. The ride on the aircraft back to their little hideout went about as well as can be. They weren't being tailed so it was smooth sailing back to safety. Although throughout the time, Roman was a bit on edge as to what might his… employer might say at his lack of resources gathered.

"How very disappointing, Roman."

' _Speak of the devil.'_ Roman thinks at the cold voice. That still doesn't stop him from suddenly turning around when he hears the voice and their noisy entrance. "Whoa! Hehe… I wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon…" He nervously says at the new arrivals.

"We were expecting… more from you." Cinder Fall, as beautiful as she is dangerous, speaks in a disappointed tone at what returned from what was supposed to be a simple snatch and grab.

"Hey! You were the ones who suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang." Roman tries to place the blame on the organization they are working with, who normally wouldn't work with humans for that matter.

"And you will continue to do so." She chuckles darkly to him. To emphasize her point, she summons a fireball in her hand and steps out of the darkness with her two companions, a grey haired man and mint-haired, tanned woman, eyes glowing gold. We have big plans for you, Roman. All we ask is… a little cooperation." She subtly threatens him with the fire still burning, showing off her smile in the small of the darkness around them. Roman purses his lips and groans a little under his breath but nods nonetheless, ensuring he shouldn't screw up again. Not like it was his choice for that matter. "Now, would you also mind explaining why your shoeless?" Cinder asks him, snuffing out the fire and pointing at his missing shoed foot.

He looks down to his aforementioned missing shoe before looking back up with an annoyed look. "Hey! I'd like to see you get mauled on by a Grimm and come out without a scratch." He accuses them.

The two behind Cinder look at each other confused by what he means while her eyebrow raises in curiosity. "Grimm?" The grey haired guy asks.

"You were only supposed to go to Vale and back." The mint haired girl states.

"Yeah, I know." He answers matter a factly before crossing his arms. "But nosy brats weren't the only thing there. There were some Grimm there as well and they beating the crap out of those mutts." He refers to the White Fang members before getting a thinking look on his face. "Weird thing was, it looked like they were being controlled by someone."

Cinder walks closer to him, emitting an air of authority about her that makes him know he has to be going somewhere with this. "And what makes you think that?" She asks in her calm cold voice.

Roman looks uncomfortably at her and clears his throat. "Because the Grimm I saw ONLY attacked us and not the brats at all. I even saw a couple of them right next to the one that attacked and it didn't even growl at them. It was weird." He explains to them what happened, as best as he can put together from everything.

While Cinders cohorts are confused at the statement, the woman herself begins to think on this new set of events that has transpired. "Hmmm, interesting." She hums and walks away, gesturing for her partners to follow, minus Roman.

* * *

The next day has come around and that means its back to class for everyone. Even Blake as she's not back at Beacon in team RWBEY's room. She sits on her bed deep in thought as to what had happened over the weekend.

' _They… forgive me. They aren't mad at me and… accept me. This was… this was something I wasn't expecting.'_ While a smile forms on her lips at the thought, it soon forms into a frown as her thoughts begin to take on more foreboding ones. _'But… how long will the peace last. I was member of the White Fang. We started out with good intentions but now… now its gotten so bad. How long until they do something really really terrible that no one will ever forgive them? Or any Faunus by association?'_ Her hands start to quiver at the idea as they clench tightly into fists on her knees. _'How long until my friends hate the White Fang so much that they hate me?! Just for one being a part of—'_

"Blake."

"Huh? Ooh!" At the sudden new voice, she turns her head towards the door and thanks to her reflexes, both in her training and natural instincts, she manages to catch the item that was thrown at her. She looks down at the item before she looks at what was thrown to her in confusion.

It's her weapon. Gambol Shroud. She looks back up at him for an answer as to why he just threw her weapon towards her. Ethan stands there, his own weapons equipped and his normal combat attire on. "Go ahead and get dressed. The others are still in class, we're done for the day and I think its time."

"… Time for what?" She asks after a moments thought.

He simply smiles at her as he crosses his arms. "I've already started a partnership with Weiss. I think its time we do the same. Step one: teach me." He finishes with a hand wave to the weapon she's holding.

While her thoughts before were leaving with many doubts as t her place on her team, this sudden activity brought upon her… just might be what she needs. She stands and returns the smile to her teammate.

* * *

 **Hey everyone. Sorry for the long wait. Things happened, my drive to write took a hit for a while and I just wasn't focused on writing as much so I would have liked but now I think I'm starting to get back into things. Not fully but it's a step in the right direction and hopefully will stop me from taking almost four months in updating again. Seriously, sorry everyone.**

 **This chapter was an alright set up from what I can tell and I like how it came out. As it turns out, looks like our enemy's has taken note of Ethan's special ability. Only a matter of time in whether or not this will come to bite him later on or not. Time will tell.**

 **Cf96:** Thank you.

 **xXSpades231Xx:** I do what I can.

 **During the summer I was able to head on over to RTX and check out the event. It was fun and I got to enjoy all three days but not as much on the third day. My family went with me to Austin as a sort of vacation for all of us to get out of our normal home life but on the third day I was only able to go to the RWBY event and then we had to go home because my grandmother wasn't feeling too good. She's better now but I hate it when coincidences happen like that on vacation-esque trips. Still, I was able to get some nice merchandise and just overall have a good time. Saw some awesome cosplayers, lots of Yangs, and even a few a Raven Branwens. Now I don't know about you all and those of your that attended the event, but I had a front row seat, so to speak, it happened in the lunch area, to a heated debacle between the mother and daughter and talk about the mother wasn't a very good… mother.**

 **It… was… awesome. The acting and bit one of the Yang and Raven cosplayers was awesome to watch and hear. I was drinking a soda and I almost spit-take. Now, I'm not confident enough, especially in public, to cosplay like that but props to any and all cosplayers like that. Especially the ones that are just so good at staying in character.**

 **Anyway, that's enough ranting. Hopefully it won't take me as long to get out another chapter here. I'm excited for the new season of RWBY and wonder what their going to do. Thank you everyone for your support. As always, fave, follow, review, whatever it is you want to do, have fun reading and have a great day everyone. I'll try to. It's going to be raining heavily for a week here. But that's not a bad thing.**

 **I like the rain.**


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